February 17–24, 2000
movie shorts
Pitch Black
 |
 |
|
|
A shipful of interstellar passengers finds themselves marooned on an unmapped planet in this moody and effective sci-fi monster movie from David Twohy (The Arrival). Neither the acting nor the script is much to talk about, but Pitch Black is a smart thriller in the way that Alien is; Twohy knows enough to keep the monsters under wraps until the climax (which is doubly good, since they’re a little boring once the wrapper comes off). On a planet circled by three blinding suns — cinematographer David Eggby washes out the colors until the film’s practically in yellow and white — the intrepid band of survivors first thinks their biggest problem is an escaped murderer (Saving Private Ryan’s Vin Diesel) who was bound for lockup, but in classic Western fashion, the outcast becomes their savior. As the recipient of a "surgical shine-job" (um, whatever) that allows him to see in the dark, he’s the only one who can scope out the creatures that live in the planet’s center and are just waiting for the right patch of shade to take out a human or two. Diesel, who once directed a film about his mixed-race ancestry, heads up a cast that’s refreshingly multicultural; a nice change from most sci-fi movies, where the future looks as white as a Woody Allen film festival.
