Dwayne Johnson seems too self-aware at this point to convincingly play goofy meatheads, but broadening his horizons would sacrifice his claim to the lucrative kiddie market. Why mess with a winning formula when Vin Diesel makes you look like the Daniel Day-Lewis of age-10-and-under cinema?
Johnson plays an astronaut stranded on the titular Planet 51, inhabited by a green-skinned species that mistakes him for one of the alien invader creatures from the 1950s-style movies they are consuming. 51 sacrifices biting satire of outdated Cold War anxieties for a straightforward plot, but the overall effect is enough to keep the kids in shrieking delight for 90 minutes.
This article appears in Nov 26 – Dec 2, 2009.