Opening

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83% Epic May 24
97% Before Midnight May 24
70% We Steal Secrets: The Story Of Wikileaks May 24
88% Fill the Void May 24
—— A Green Story May 24
—— Alyce Kills May 24

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77% 42 $2.8M
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36% Peeples $2.2M
8% The Big Wedding $1.2M

Coming Soon

—— After Earth May 31
—— Now You See Me May 31
100% The Kings of Summer May 31
89% The East May 31

Pitch Black (2000)

tomatometer

55

Average Rating: 5.6/10
Reviews Counted: 101
Fresh: 56 | Rotten: 45

Despite an interesting premise (and a starmaking turn from Vin Diesel), Pitch Black is too derivative and formulaic to recommend to sci-fi or action fans.

43

Average Rating: 5.1/10
Critic Reviews: 28
Fresh: 12 | Rotten: 16

Despite an interesting premise (and a starmaking turn from Vin Diesel), Pitch Black is too derivative and formulaic to recommend to sci-fi or action fans.

audience

79

liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 253,815

My Rating

Movie Info

In this science fiction thriller, a spaceship is transporting a disparate group of people to a far-away galactic outpost called New Mecca. Mechanical failures cause the craft to crash-land on an abandoned planet that has three suns and no night. The only member of the crew to survive is junior pilot Carolyn Fry (Radha Mitchell), while the passengers who climb from the wreckage include a police officer (Cole Hauser) and the prisoner he's transporting, Riddick (Vin Diesel). As Fry and the other

R,

Science Fiction & Fantasy, Horror

Ken Wheat, Jim Wheat, David Twohy

Oct 24, 2000

Gramercy Pictures/ USA Films - Official Site External Icon

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All Critics (103) | Top Critics (28) | Fresh (57) | Rotten (47) | DVD (38)

A smart, suspenseful sci-fi movie from director Twohy, whose underrated 1996 film, The Arrival, also brought visual imagination and intelligence to the genre.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The script is a compendium of science-fiction clichés, familiar in Hollywood movies since the early fifties.

March 22, 2002 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail
Globe and Mail
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Pitch Black is so jaunty, so limber, and so visually self-assured that art peeks through where crap has traditionally made its home.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
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The film works because it's strong on fundamentals: fear of the dark, fear of helplessness, fear of the unknown, and fear of unpredictable human behavior.

January 1, 2000
Film.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Barely intermittent, reminding us that the B-movie is still very much with us.

January 1, 2000
Boston Globe
Top Critic IconTop Critic

In the movie's last hour, writer-director David Twohy pretends to explore his stick figures' moral choices, and he forgets to deliver the thrills.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Top Critic IconTop Critic

contains unpredictable nuances that make for thrilling amusement

May 11, 2011 Full Review Source: Old School Reviews

...your typical run-for-your-life-the-monsters-are-coming science fiction adventure that requires one to park his brain at the front door of the theater before entering.

August 2, 2009 Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com
Filmcritic.com

Very simple and basic plot with a lot of bad acting...

April 29, 2009 Full Review Source: Cinema Crazed | Comments (2)
Cinema Crazed

[Blu-Ray DVD review] Ff you don't already own the movie and you've got the tech, this is a can't miss package

April 15, 2009 Full Review Source: Dread Central

A fairly efficient science fiction monster film, somewhat in the mold of an old 1950s B-movie.

March 31, 2009 Full Review Source: Cinefantastique
Cinefantastique

If only there had been as much time spent on creating believable aliens as there obviously was on the landscape.

July 14, 2007 Full Review Source: Big Picture Big Sound | Comments (3)
Big Picture Big Sound

Under the circumstances it's not really fair to blame the actors, whose amateurishness seems appropriate to the material (although Diesel's stolid machismo is so over-the-top as to be pretty laughable).

July 24, 2006 Full Review Source: One Guy's Opinion
One Guy's Opinion

Manages to surprise and delight, thanks to its small-scale attitude.

May 26, 2006 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid
Combustible Celluloid

Hey man, it's February. You've already picked through all the leftover Oscar-bait you can take, so it's no time to be picky.

December 6, 2005 Full Review Source: Film Threat
Film Threat

PITCH BLACK deserves to be recommended as a solid piece of genre entertainment.

June 26, 2005 Full Review Source: Draxblog Movie Reviews

The derivativeness of the script keeps any tensions from building into any kind of scariness.

April 9, 2005 Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews
Reeling Reviews

Lackluster both as science-fiction and horror.

June 4, 2004

One of the best of the sci-fi spectacles cut from the Alien cloth.

June 2, 2004 Full Review Source: Creative Loafing
Creative Loafing

A solid entry in the genre of science fiction horror.

January 15, 2004
Radio Free Entertainment

The action scenes are good, if sparse.

August 1, 2003 Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews
Reel Film Reviews

Audience Reviews for Pitch Black

Low budget sci-fi with lotsa CGI about surviving the threat of bloodthirsty creatures that only live in the dark ... and the planet we just crashlanded on is due for a four day eclipse. Luckily Vin Diesel (thief, brigand, murderer, guy w/o a shirt) crashlanded in the same spaceship, known far and wide for his acts of brotherly love and itchin' to be helpful. This ain't so bad, a cold steal from Alien and Aliens, but still not so bad.
July 21, 2007
UniversalDreamer

Super Reviewer

"All you people are so scared of me. Most days I'd take that as a compliment. But it ain't me you gotta worry about now."

A group of marooned space travelers struggle for survival on a seemingly lifeless sun-scorched world.

REVIEW
A space ship carrying a cargo of commercial passengers is forced to crash land on an unidentified planet, which, although there doesn't seem to be a shred of animal life anywhere to be found, still manages to be somehow inhabited by swarms of carnivorous birdlike creatures that only come out at night. Ask not what these animals must feed on when there isn't a crew of fleshy earthlings conveniently placed there for them to nibble on. Such rigorous application of logic is not one of `Pitch Black's strongest selling points. Neither, in fact, is the cast of characters it has managed to assemble for the occasion. Here we have the typical `cross section of humanity' routinely called upon to make its appearance in films of this type. The ship's crew and passengers include two feisty young women, a hardnosed law enforcer (is he really a hero or a man with something to hide?), an effete wine-guzzling coward, an androgynous teenager (the `revelation' involving this character comes as a surprise only to the dimwitted characters in the film), a family of Muslims and a truth-seeing, muscle-bound serial killer who becomes the group's physical and intellectual mainstay.

The story, though simpleminded and derivative of any number of other better films, nevertheless, manages to border on the murky and incoherent quite often. We often aren't sure who is doing what or why (though, in all honesty, we don't particularly care either). The special effects are generally sub par for a film of this genre and the only real attempt to create an otherworldly atmosphere consists in applying various types of light filters to the camera lens. Completely lacking in suspense, excitement or originality (although the ending has a slightly unexpected twist), `Pitch Black' is strictly one for the video graveyard.
March 20, 2012
LorenzoVonMatterhorn
Lorenzo von Matterhorn

Super Reviewer

    1. Johns: Hey, I thought I said no shivs!
    2. Richard B. Riddick: You mean this? This is just a personal grooming appliance.
    – Submitted by Terrance S (11 months ago)
    1. Richard B. Riddick: You got it all wrong, holy man. I do believe in God, and I personally hate the fucker.
    – Submitted by Kris R (16 months ago)
    1. Richard B. Riddick: Didn't know who you was fucking with!
    – Submitted by Sultan A (21 months ago)

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Latest News on Pitch Black

December 21, 2012:
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August 3, 2009:
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March 10, 2009:
Vin Diesel Talks Next Riddick Game, Sequel
Vin Diesel is out promoting his next "Chronicles of Riddick" videogame, "Assault on Dark Athena," so...

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