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Movie review

Ensuring domestic tranquility

By BILLY NORRIS
Published March 7, 2005

Movie: The Pacifier

Rating: PG

Summary: Navy SEAL Shane Wolfe (Vin Diesel) is pulled out of active duty after he is shot while in the field. But nothing is ever permanent, especially when you're as skilled as Shane, and he is summoned by the government to take on his most crucial task yet. He has been assigned to protect the five kids of the Plummer family and play housekeeper while Mom goes off to take care of some dangerous business. The kids' father was a scientist who was developing an invaluable weapons technology called GHOST, which he hid somewhere in his house. He was assassinated, and now militants from around the world are plotting to steal GHOST from the Plummer household. Shane definitely has his hands full. He runs a boot-camp-like household to keep high schoolers Zoe (Tampa native Brittany Snow) and Seth (Max Thieriot), elementary-age Lulu (Morgan York), 3-year-old Peter (Keegan Hoover) and baby Tyler (Bo and Luke Vink) in check, while he tries to locate and secure GHOST and defend the kids against bullies, boyfriends, Boy Scouts, and, oh yeah, terrorists.

My View: This film was a bit on the violent side of a PG - definitely not PG-13 material, yet nonetheless surprising for something from Disney. There's not much else to say about this one. Aside from the violence, it is fairly typical family movie fare. The younger kids and parents in the audience embraced the humor, ranging from a wild pet duck to a troop of karate-kicking Girl Scouts to Diesel's diaper-changing episodes. The exception was Brad Garrett, though, who was side-splitting as a big-headed vice principal. The plot's climax was fairly anticlimactic, and it had the unsurprising happy ending everyone was expecting. It even made use of the cheesy romance element, adding a relationship between Diesel and the school's principal (Lauren Graham). The bottom line: for the kids.

Recommendations: This is best suited for ages 8-12. Otherwise, you could most likely take it or leave it.

Grade: C+

- Billy Norris, 17, is in the 11th grade at Seminole High School and is a former member of the Times X-Team.

[Last modified March 4, 2005, 11:28:03]