This Diesel is high octane

Vin Diesel

THEY say you should never go back but Vin Diesel (daft name, but we’ll forgive him) could be forgiven for thinking differently.

The man who made his name in murky action thrillers Pitch Black, xXx and petrolhead’s dream The Fast and the Furious appeared to be on the fast track to oblivion when he decided to send up his hard man persona by playing a crack naval officer-turned-babysitter in The Pacifier.

He was probably hoping for plaudits for playing against type, along the lines of Arnold Schwarzenegger in Kindergarten Cop, but the result was a critical flop and threatened to put permanent skids under Diesel’s career.

But the mean and moody 41-year-old has enjoyed a swift return to the top of the box office after reteaming with old mucker Paul Walker for the unimaginatively-title Fast and Furious.

It may not trouble next year’s Oscar judges but by taking almost £5 million in a bumper Easter weekend, the high-octane smash has proved that you don’t need to be high brow to set the cinema tills ringing—and injected some much-needed fuel into Diesel’s career in the process.