The Pacifier

The Pacifier follows Shane Wolfe, a Navy SEAL assigned to protect the five children of a government scientist who has been killed. The scientist left behind a secret experiment hidden in the family home, and enemy operatives want it. What should be a straightforward security detail turns into something else entirely: Wolfe, trained for combat, finds himself managing a rebellious teenager, a withdrawn boy, a young girl with a taste for martial arts, her little brother and a baby. Guarding the house and the children at once proves harder than any mission he has handled before.

Vin Diesel plays Wolfe, with Lauren Graham, Faith Ford, Brittany Snow, Max Thieriot and Chris Potter among the cast. Adam Shankman directed from a screenplay by Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant, and the film was produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment. It arrived in 2005, the fifth of the eleven features Shankman has directed, between Cheaper by the Dozen 2 and Hairspray.

Made for 56 million dollars, the film took in about 199 million worldwide, a strong return that reflects its broad family appeal rather than critical favor. On IMDb it holds 5.6 from roughly 106,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.1 from over 3,300, both middling scores. A critics' rating of 3.9 from 127 reviews sits well below those audience numbers, the clearest sign of the gap between how reviewers and general viewers received it.