Still, having such a wooden lead playing such a one-dimensional hero definitely makes it less appealing for casual movie goers. In fairness, these limitations are unlikely to deter the movie’s action-fan target demographic. In The Last Witch Hunter, he acts opposite an immobile corpse and a wooden tree monster, yet still somehow manages to be stiffer than both. But more recently he seems to have settled comfortably into Steven Segal mode, a walking bag of boiled ham whose expressive range barely extends beyond sleepy-eyed, guttural grunts. All smirk and bicep, he was once earmarked as the natural successor to Bruce Willis. The one truly impressive thing about Diesel’s acting skills is how he has achieved so much with so little.
