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List Price: $34.98 | | Label: 20th Century Fox
Salesrank: 29354
Released: January 6, 2009 |
| Our Price: $19.99 |
| Used Price: $3.57 |
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MPAA Rating: Unrated
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Genre: Action/Adventure
Rating: UN
Release Date: 6-JAN-2009
Media Type: DVD
Description of Babylon A.D. (Two-Disc Special Edition):
Confusing and chaotic, Babylon A.D. was said by its director, Mathieu Kassovitz, to have been heavily cut in order to obtain a PG-13 rating. Whether or not that explains why the film feels so thin on story details and heavy on obligatory explosions, is hard to say. What is clear is that the film is mildly enjoyable if one just focuses on the non-stop action. Vin Diesel plays Toorop, a futuristic mercenary living in Eastern Europe and eating unappetizing critters. A gangster named Gorsky (Gerard Depardieu) engages him to transport a girl, Aurora (the spooky-looking Melanie Thierry), and her chaperone, a nun named Sister Rebeka (Michelle Yeoh), from Russia to New York, taking a route over the top of the world. With no idea what's so special about Aurora, Toorop soon encounters some inexplicable facts. First, Aurora has a wild passion for helpless people, including the poor, refugees, etc.--so wild, she has to be contained at times. She also has a strange genius for understanding such things as handling the controls of an old submarine, which she has never been done before.
Over the North Pole and down into America, Toorop is drawn into a battle for possession of Aurora fought in Manhattan's streets. The combatants, it turns out, are more or less Aurora's parents, who have very different reasons for wanting something special she's carrying within her. The complicated story is never truly clear, making it hard to sympathize with a downbeat ending or enjoying a sophisticated support cast including Yeoh, Charlotte Rampling, Depardieu and Lambert Wilson. Diesel is his usual laconic and enjoyable self, and his performance as a hit man who settles somewhat into a makeshift family with Rebeka and Aurora is as touching as his fighting skills are still impressive. --Tom Keogh
Beyond Babylon A.D.
Stills from Babylon A.D. (Click for larger image) Babylon A.D. (Two-Disc Special Edition) Reviews:
Pretty dumb, but nowhere near as bad as advertised. 
2009-12-11 - Babylon A.D. (Matthieu Kassovitz, 2008)
Despite all the horrible things I'd heard about this movie, I had to wonder how you could pair the director of La Haine and the star of Multi-Facial and come up with something bad. And to be fair, "bad" is a kind of relative term. I can see where people who are only exposed to mainstream cinema might think it's one of the worst things they saw in 2008, but, like The Chronicles of Riddick, another unjustly trashed Diesel vehicle, this wasn't even the worst movie I saw this week. (By my count, in the past seven days, I've seen three movies that were demonstrably worse than this and two more of roughly the same level of quality.) Yeah, it's nothing more than a mindless action movie, certainly not of the quality I'd expect from a director like Kassovitz, but if you put aside the expectations that come with a director and cast of this quality, it's like Charlie Brown's christmas tree; scraggly, sure, but with a spark that's been missing from all the other aluminum trees on the lot.
Plot: Toorop (Vin Diesel) is an American expat living in Russia, a mercenary who's been kicked out of his home country after finding himself on the terrorist list. He's hired by the similarly mercenary Gorsky (Gerard Depardieu) for a sensitive mission: to deliver a girl named Aurora (The Legend of 1900's Melanie Thierry) and her keeper, Sister Rebecca (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon's Michelle Yeoh) to New York City in six days. Along with half a million dollars, Gorsky will provide Toorop with a new genetic identity, which will enable him to move back to America permanently. That's quite a carrot, and Toorop takes the job. While there's some more to the plot later on, that's the basics, and the rest of the movie is doing the things Vin Diesel has been doing best for the past ten years: scenes where a whole lot of stuff blows up.
You can't go into it with high expectations; Kassovitz' annoyance with Fox was well-publicized, and Fox ended up cutting almost half of Kassovitz' original cut in order to give the movie its less-than-ninety-minute running time. While I'd love to see the full hundred sixty minute cut Kassovitz originally turned in (the DVD clocks in at substantially less, with only eleven minutes of footage restored), I'm not all that sure it would make a great deal of difference; this is big, stylized Hollywood violence, without the intimacy of fist meeting flesh that made La Haine such a shocking film. Things go boom, and people run around shooting each other, and if you like that sort of thing, you'll probably get a kick out of this. It is kind of a disappointment to see Diesel only doing these big action-movie things after starting his career off by proving himself a fantastic actor in Multi-Facial, but like Keanu Reeves after a similar beginning with River's Edge and Permanent Record, that sort of role doesn't seem to be in the cards any more. (Ever think about going back to directing, Vin?) Still, for what it is, it gets the job done. Not in an exceptional or original way, but turn your brain off and you'll have a good time with it. **
Babylon A.D. 
2009-12-10 - I really did enjoy this movie. Vin Diesel I think is a very good actor. I hope another comes out.
Not Buying It
2009-11-20 - Nope,I'm not buying it--either the movie itself or the premise that deep inside this is a really good movie ruined by bad editing, inattentive audiences, or the evil designs of the Tooth Fairy. Babylon AD is an almost incomprehensible set of action sequences set mostly in a Mad Max post-apocalyptic future, and nothing more. Vin hits people, Vin shoots people, people hit and shoot Vin, and stuff blows up all over the place, and nothing else in the movie is anything more than a thinly disguised way to get from one action sequence to another. Does that make it a bad movie? Depends on your criteria, I guess. I thought my time had been wasted, but then, you might not. Just don't expect more than things going boom.
EVEN TO THE MOST PERCEPTIVE THE FUTURE ALWAYS SEEMS A LITTLE STRANGE IF ONLY BECAUSE IT MUST REMAIN COMPLETELY UNKNOWABLE 
2009-10-15 - The Sci-Fi adventure epic is that venue in which the improbable and the inexplicable stay, thrashing in their own matrix of danger. Here, DIESEL is up to speed and a little beyond, at last, with this one. That spooky-scary kinetic rush of physical power and rage-aholism that animated XXX, PITCH BLACK and RIDDICK is back again, after a spate of gaffs and dung nuggets, and we can see the man as the MovieStar he is, for what he is, in his element. What is that element? It's that unpredictable area of semi-consciousness, part dream and part myth, where primal forces collide under the direction of men like David Twohy -- who orchestrated RIDDIK -- and Luc Besson, who directed, wrote and produced THE FIFTH ELEMENT. And in many ways BABYLON AD closely resembles that movie, FIFTH ELEMENT. Actually, the character Toorop of BABYLON AD is interchangeable with Korben Dallas of ELEMENT, played by Bruce Willis. In their careers, both actors play archetypes and for the past five or more years, have been and are to a degree rivals, and except that they are not physical twins, their roles have been nearly identical: SIN CITY, yet another rescue mission. And so, this snippet from the blurb for FIFTH ELEMENT fits very well here: This cast of actors stars "In an outrageous sci-fi adventure, an extravagantly styled tale of good against evil set in an unbelievable twenty-third century world."
Both these actors, WILLIS and DIESEL have transcended their national origins, and even their original stereotypes (sarcastic West Side of Manhattan toughies) as well as their ethnic and racial origins, and become Types. What types? Brutes. Or, just Americans as Europeans may well see us; mindless, mercenary Thugs. Remember, if you check the very lengthy walk-out credits, you'll find that this movie is not an American movie, but a pan-European or International one, with credits for artistic and financial production coming from virtually every financial center in the world, an with artistic creation originating in Paris, Prague, Rome, London and only incidentally from New York. In fact, considering Michelle Yeoh's considerable contribution, it wouldn't be strange if the Chinese film business contributed to BABYLON.
But what's BABYLON A.D. like to watch? Luscious, to my way of thinking; irrational, wonderful, unnpredictable action and virtually all the actors give surprising performances.
DIESEL? He looks great. They've finally figured out how to vary his 'look' so that he's at least plausibly attractive in a street-like way. (A MAN APART, a fairly good action flick, puts him in Mexi-Latino LA, and with facial hair he fits in.) Here, they find ways to make him look interesting on camera. They do exquisite creative work with his tatooing; great forearm motifs, good hand stuff; they bring lines and slashes up to his hairline and do suave things with his scalp and rug. So fine! In a scene near the end of the movie he's caught in the shower first, with bleeding wounds and a spectacular all-over Egyptian-style dorsal tatoo and next, with Melanie Thierry in her undies. They don't wrestle, but they don't have to. Total Venus and Mars. Arousing, like something out of DUN.
MELANIE THIERRY is a ravishing girl/woman with blonde hair and the face of an angel or, yes, yes, admit it; the face of the Madonna. Like Milla Jovovich, she has the huge, pale wide eyes and Finnish-like not-quite androgynous body and the sense of unearthliness the role calls for. Through most of the flick her role is passive: She appears to be psychotic, but turns out to be psychic, we find, en route. However, she's always being pushed and pulled everywhere, by nearly everybody, so its hard to tell. But somehow she maintains an unearthly poise that is both upsetting and attractive.
MICHELE YEOH brings to the film those qualities which, if you haven't ever seen her (in CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON) or anything else, must remain inexplicable. Grace, poise, beauty, strength and athleticism. She is a marvel. Chen-yu.
GERARD DEPARDIEU was a complete surprise. I didn't look at the credits on the box and didn't realize that the character I saw, the Russian thug who set the story in motion, was indeed himself. He is so great, but we seldom if ever see him in English-language movies.
And get ready for CHARLOTTE RAMPLING. What a monster! Almost didn't recognize her, haven't seen her for so long. This beautiful bit will certainly bring her back more often.
The sets? Peculiar. Very, very interesting.
The premise is astonishing: Toorop, this out-at-the elbow mercenary American is living somewhere in (Post-apocalyptic) Russia (of all places. No explanation) as a Russian and on very damned little, but gets an offer for work from one of the big Mafiosi. He is not in a position to refuse, if only because his acceptance means the possibility that he may be able to escape to the USA and his family home. It's a pick-up and delivery gig; some kind of wierd girl. The trip? From Russia, which looks like a scrap yard of barely operational military junk, to possibly Mongolia and an isolated monestary to fetch the girl who will not travel without her own special nun; then by partly-armored vintage 70s Zil, under and over the Silk Road, and then partly by rail to Vladivostak. There, to pick up boat tickets, they wait at the edge of the fozen-over harbor. Did you hear me? Across frigging Asia, man!
Meanwhile, at the terminal there's a horrific bomb blast -- which thanks to the girl they avoid -- and a confusing series of fights and brawls with swarming, dangerous kids, in and through a kind of rickety scaffolding that is almost but not quite architecture. And when the sub appears in the frozen harbor like a black, iron whale, that dreadful scene is handled with cruel, Soviet-like efficiency.
After more adventures they find themselves in New York City. (Now, pop. 21 million: it's Dekerd's cityscape from BLADERUNNER, seen from above. Kosher Tokyo.) There, in Haarlem, the story takes an abrupt twist, and the people who paid for the delivery of the girl, prepare to receive her. (It's The murderous Queen of the Night from THE MAGIC FLUTE and her nasty entourage.) She brings with her unending malice and unspeakable violence. There is a convulsion in which nearly everyone dies.
But not everybody. Our anti-hero is resurrected or transformed into a loving, partly-bionic man, or fusion-droid, in up-state New York. And from there... It's short but home sweet home.
BABYLON A.D. is about as pure a HEAVY METAL adventure as you can find these days, and I intend to watch it again this afternoon. (Envy me, you pathetic corporate deeves!)
bablyon a.d.
2009-10-14 - a good action sci-fi film for adults only because of the profanity. this is not for children.
