4. Being Sexist Gets You Women (And Can 'Turn' Lesbians) - Riddick
Richard B. Riddick has to be one of the most unlikable characters in cinematic history. In basic terms hes just not a nice person - Vin Diesel's delivery is painfully monotone, his motives bluntly sadistic and his enemies actually relatable - but thats par for the course for an anti-hero. What you shouldn't do with them is try and turn them into a lovable franchise header. Pitch Black played it just about right, but with The Chronicles Of Riddick and this month's Riddick David Twohy tried to lionise him, creating sometimes interesting films you had to suffer with someone unpleasant to experience. Things were only worsened by the incredibly misogynistic script in the latest outing. Already covered heavily by the mainstream press, this was oblique and unavoidable; there was none of the blurred meanings Robin Thicke presented in the other sexism scandal of the summer. Some of the mercenaries who travel out to a remote planet indistinguishable from where we've been before to catch the murderer are a tad intense with their view of women, but there thats creating character depth. It's when Riddick returns to the plot after a savoured half hour without Vin Diesel on screen things get disgusting; before proclaiming he wants to get balls deep in the films only female character he makes a rather tasteless comparison between toes and nipples. Surely, this is all just to show how old fashioned these characters are though? Thats what I was hoping, until Dahl (a lesbian who has had guys propositioning/threatening her since she first popped up on screen) comes down smiling to save Riddick from a bunch of Xenomorph aping aliens; not content with just showing this ideal betrayal Twohy has Riddick grope her ass, much to her delight.