RIDDICK DVD (2013)




SYNOPSIS: Riddick, the latest chapter of the groundbreaking saga that began with 2000's hit sci-fi film Pitch Black and 2004's The Chronicles of Riddick reunites writer/director David Twohy (A Perfect Getaway, The Fugitive) and star Vin Diesel (the Fast and Furious franchise, xXx). Diesel reprises his role as the antihero Riddick, a dangerous, escaped convict wanted by every bounty hunter in the known galaxy.

MOVIE REVIEW:

No shit, nearly ten years after the tepid The Chronicles of Riddick, star Vin Diesel and helmer David Twohy teams up once again for another round of adventure with antihero Richard B. Riddick.

Almost as empty as the original and almost as good, Riddick is a stripped-down, survival story that begins with the Riddick character being left for death in the alien wasteland. Surrounded by hungry jackals, vulture-like flying creatures and mud demons, Riddick must first get himself healed to escape from this hellhole. Activating an emergency beacon in a deserted mercenary station, a group of rugged bounty hunters and a team of professional mercenaries answered his call.  Its now men versus men and men versus a bunch of deadly mud demons before anyone can successfully escape out of here.

To put it simply, Riddick delivers what makes Pitch Black a cult hit, a truckload of creature effects, action and gore and a good amount of offensive humour. Characters are paper-thin, generically written and probably you are going to remember only Spanish actor Jordi Molla (Bad Boys II) as the leader of the bounty hunter who suffered a gory death, Katee Sackoff from Battlestar Galactica as a tough lesbo mercenary baring her tits in one bathroom scene and Matthew Nable as a father who seeks the truth behind his son’s death (referring to one of the characters in the first movie). Knowledge of the earlier two instalments is non-obligatory I must add.

Of course, the sole success of Riddick owes it to the star presence of actor and producer Vin Diesel. It’s one of his favorite onscreen characters and fortunately for the Fast and Furious actor, he is the only guy in Hollywood that can bring out Riddick’s badass attitude and that silly glow-in-the-dark vision else the character will be dumped into some straight-to-video territory. 

This is definitely not Alien or Avatar sci-fi stuff we are talking about. It’s a lean killing machine serving up plenty of violence, pulpy dialogue and even a canine friend for the tough and usually aloof Riddick. Even without a sky-high budget, Riddick’s ROI is pretty substantial for Universal to consider a fourth outing and we sure wouldn’t mind more of Diesel’s low growling. 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

NIL

AUDIO/VISUAL:

Sound is aggressive though it’s only Dolby 2.0 and visually speaking, the colours and imaging details are free of offensive jarring and banding.

MOVIE RATING:



DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee



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 ABOUT THE MOVIE

Genre: Action/Sci-Fi
Starring: Vin Diesel, Karl Urban, Jordi Molla, Matt Nable, Katee Sackhoff, Bokeem Woodbine, Dave Bautista, Conrad Pla, Raoul Trujillo, Nolan Funk, Keri Hilson
Director: David Twohy
Rating: M18 (Violence, Some Nudity and Coarse Language)
Year Made: 2013

 SPECIAL FEATURES

- NIL

 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Languages: English
Subtitles: English/Chinese
Aspect Ratio: 16x9 Widescreen
Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0
Running Time:  1 hr 54 mins
Region Code: 3
Distributor: Scorpio East Entertainment