He’s my favorite actor. I really liked him in Pitch Black and Cronicles of Riddick. He always plays such kick-ass characters. But it seems that I am the only one who likes him. All of my friends hate him. They see him as a all muscle-no brain person. Why?
He can’t act. He has all the personality of a waterlogged cardboard box. You already mentioned the “all-muscle no-brain” aspect.
I think a lot people can’t stand him because he IS sucessful despite all his shortcomings as an “actor”.
Because he’s the worst in a long string of no-talent brutish “actors” (like Steven Seagal) whose grunting performances seem to appeal to the knuckle-dragging element in society. No offense.
The guy certainly has brains. However, there’s something very calculated about him, as if he’s inventing himself to appeal to as wide a demographic as possible.
His acting skills are not all that great, but then again, he’s a movie star.
To reiterate…he can’t act. At all. Ever.
He has no charisma, no screen presence, and no acting talent.
It seems any role Vin can do, The Rock can probably do better. He has more charisma, “talent”, muscles, and personality.
He did okay in the non-exploding movie Boiler Room and, I was surprised to learn, was the voice of the Iron Giant.
In any case, he’s being limited to roles where he’s a tough guy who might do the right thing, if by doing the right thing he can Stick It To The Man a whole bunch of times and point out how powerfully uncool The Man is. That wears thin awfully fast.
Plus, he lives his life a quarter mile at a time.
I want an action hero who lives his life at least 5 miles at a time.
Ironically, his best, most compelling acting role was as a 100 foot tall metal munching robot…
Not Atomo, I Superman!
You Die??..I Die???
I am not a gun!
Hogarth, you stay, i go, no following…
Suuupermannn!
Any role Vin can do, a rock can do better!
I have to disagree. He seems fairly charismatic and while he’s not a great actor, he’s certainly -at least- on par with several big names in Hollywood (Keanu Reeves comes to mind).
He also has an amazing body and a nice face. This alone pushes him -way- past Steven Seagall, in my opinion.
And that voice… sigh
I never liked Vin Diesel till I saw Chronicles of Riddick. Other movies with Vin have bad script and bad acting by Vin. CoR, however, still has bad writing, but Vin actually makes the lines his and improves them by underplaying them.
First of all, I’m not with these peopleThat could have been a hugely cheesy line, but when he said it, it came off confident yet funny.
Other actors, even if they had been told to underplay it, would either have played to the camera or would have underplayed it too much, implying either a true lack of confidence or a deliberate attempt on the character’s part to build up dramatic tension. Whereas Riddick really didn’t give a fuck.
Contrast to Arnie, where his most well-played character was Mr Freeze 
He’s not a GREAT actor, but he’s not as bad as the bandwagon would have you believe. His performance in Boiler Room makes it pretty clear that the choices he makes in the action flicks are intentional. He’s ten times the actor that Schwarzenpooper ever was, but at this stage of his career he’s aiming for the hole that Ahnuld has left in the multimillionaire pantheon. It wouldn’t surprise me if, when it’s time for him to hand that mantle off to the next generation, he starts doing some much more interesting work. I do wish he’d do some indie stuff to keep his credibility intact, in between the action porkers, but maybe he’s just trying to be all one thing for now, or something.
I never saw the appeal. I’ve seen him in a couple movies and he’s a bad boy anti-hero who’s a lot more grating then he is fun to watch.
The Iron Giant was pretty good though.
This is a compliment?
I would say that Vin is not charismatic. If he was then more people would like him, by deffinition. There is just something likeable and entertaining about Arnold, and something anoying about Vin. Vin seems to be trying way to hard to be the bad boy, like several real life twits I know, and he reminds me off them. Arnie was always comic bookish and over-the-top and it didn’t correspond to anything in real life, and it was good entertainment without anoying me. .
I actually thought Pitch Black was OK. Of course, I had expectation levels going in somewhere near my big toenails while standing, so it was not difficult to exceed them. I thought V.D. (couldn’t resist) was OK, and while The Rock is more charismatic, he’s also way more smarmy as well, and Vin comes across as a bit less of a nimrod.
I think this is it exactly. Right now he and Dwayne Johnson are the frontrunners for the ‘generic muscled action star hero’ title. Personally, I hope The Rock gets it. He’s got that humor element going for him, much better facial expressions, and an actual range of emotion.
Vin Diesel doesn’t do much more than speak really low and shoot things.
Escape from Butcher Bay was a pretty cool video game, though.
I also recently found out that he voices my namesake on Cartoon Network. That’s approximately 50 gazillion points in his favor right there.