Riddock ****

The 3rd in the Vin Diesal film arrives on DVD now and seeing how a call from Universal to Vin informing him Riddock was now top of the DVD charts (This inspired a video of the man himself shaming his alter ego Riddock by dancing and miming to Beyonce and Katy Perry) I finally got around to checking out the 3rd instalment of the franchise. 

After Pitch Black then came The Chronicles of Riddock and now a further chronicle of Riddock which is simply called... well Riddock. And the title certainly doesn't mislead as it's around 35 minutes till other characters join our story. 

We find Riddock in a bad way left for dead in strange un humanless planet where he must fight for survival and escape. Here Riddock is forced to do battle with his deadliest foes yet strange birds, strange dogs and fair enough some really freaky swamp creatures. 

This is till bounty hunters arrive to take Riddock in but also provides him with his manner or escape all whilst an even bigger threat looms over everyones heads. 

Indeed quite a brave move for a modern blockbuster to allow 35 minutes of just it's a main character this can only work if there's charisma from the actor, intrigue in the plot and action. This is mostly achieved with Vin delivering, his attempts at survival keep you entertained including the discovery of vile watery creatures. 

However once the initial threats are by passed and his health returns Riddock's time is then spent hanging out with his new BBF in an unlikely bromance his got going on with a SFX space dog. I was hoping this wasn't going to become the new Tom Hanks/Wilson double act from Cast Away and luckily the plot breaks out again and off we go all the way to the end credits. 

Following the successful first cult film, then the over hyped disappointing last sequel Riddock is back on track and works to great effect. It succeeds by simply taking a back to basics approach an old fashioned action film in the modern, in fact very modern day if you look at the film futuristic setting. 

The franchise has found it's feet again, with Vin confirming Universal have asked him to start developing the next film (Which the ending implied there would be) we can look forward to another chapter and perhaps more entertaining another all singing/dancing home video by rid dock himself.   

Verdict ****

Great Friday night entertainment in the form of a back to basic science fiction actioner with good old Vin still relishing his gig as the iconic cult role.