"With his elephantine glare and trapezius muscles that could support a Mack truck, Vin Diesel, who appears in two films opening today, is definitely the flavor of the movie weekend. In The Boiler Room he is a hulking illegal stock trader who would be right at home in the world of The Sopranos. And in the snazzily atmospheric sci-fi horror film Pitch Black he is Riddick, a fiendishly grinning murderer with a nose for menstrual blood. In the movie's opening scenes, in which Riddick tears off his manacles, he suggests a bone-crushing hybrid of Hannibal Lecter, Harry Houdini and Hulk Hogan stomping out of a leather fetishist's private dungeon. But in both roles Mr. Diesel finds ways to insinuate glints of humor, intelligence and even a grudging sweetness. As styles of macho, shaved-headed antihero go, he is a new variation on something familiar. Think of Telly Savalas as a hip-hop thug, and you'll get the idea."