Veteran-turned-mercenary Toorop takes the high-risk job of escorting a woman from Russia to America. Little does he know that she is host to an organism that a cult wants to harvest in order... Read allVeteran-turned-mercenary Toorop takes the high-risk job of escorting a woman from Russia to America. Little does he know that she is host to an organism that a cult wants to harvest in order to produce a genetically modified Messiah.Veteran-turned-mercenary Toorop takes the high-risk job of escorting a woman from Russia to America. Little does he know that she is host to an organism that a cult wants to harvest in order to produce a genetically modified Messiah.
- Awards
- 1 nomination total
- Neolite MIB
- (as Pete Thias)
Featured reviews
Sadly average
Director Mathieu Kassovitz has been in the business for a while now and is a well complete actor as well and still something about this project went wrong. The story itself seems solid - and somewhat I can imagine the book being just great - but the movie looks rushed with only the most important and visual parts shown.
Actually, it's a kind of annoying experience as you can see how really good it could have been if they only did a better job on the background and the storytelling instead of mixing everything from the book in an action packed movie. Now being totally honest, the action isn't great at all thanks to the shaky hand cam effect (The Bourne Legacy I guess ...) and uninspired choreography. Same goes for the acting : Depardieu and Wilson are easily the worst : they would have read the script for the first time it wouldn't have surprise me.
Considering all the good material it certainly feels like a misproduction, someone said the director and actor Vin Diesel were having different opinions and I do hope the latter won because if Kassovitz did it the way he wanted I'd be really disappointed.
We've been awarded with such great movies around the same kind of subject (Children of Men to name one) that this one seems pale compared to those.
What's the point ? KASSOVITZ FIND A GOOD SCRIPT NEXT TIME
Please give to Kassovitz a very good script because i know he can do a great film. And he is one the few french director who can direct a movie as the American does when they achieve greatness. I know he can do better. He must !
Interesting Futuristic Details Stitched into a Poor Story
The setting is the world in ruins after nuclear war. Vin Diesel comes in as the anti-hero, terrorist hired to deliver a "package" to the US. Enter Michelle Yeoh as the protector and chaperone to the package. She's excellent in her role as a nun in a seemingly peaceful cult spouting lines such as, "just because we are peaceful, doesn't mean we are weak." There are some nifty special effects and enough mystery at the beginning to make me believe the film is going to get 7 stars.
Except for some futuristic technology, that's about it for the good parts of the film.
As for the bad parts, have you ever seen The Simpsons episode with Mel Gibson? The last half hour of Babylon AD is treated like Homer Simpson's version of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. I'm not kidding. It was shockingly bad and truly follows Homer's vision.
I'm still not quite sure what point the movie was trying to make. The story becomes so muddled and the acting is so bad at times that I had no idea what was going on. About 3/4 through the movie, one of the most awkward sexual tension scenes is thrown in for the hell of it. There's no build to it and it makes absolutely no sense, which unfortunately becomes the recurring theme until the end.
Babylon A.D.D.
Do you like headaches? Do you wake up everyday saying "Today sure is a great day to see a movie that could have been great, but I'd rather be confused!" Well then go see this movie! I don't really know what else to say, you can't really rate a movie as good, or bad, unless there is a movie to rate. It was so jumbled around with drastic scene changes, a plot that you don't even understand at the end of the movie, and uhhh, be prepared to be in an altered state of mind when you go to see it, maybe then you'll think you get it. Otherwise you're gonna hate this movie.
Incredibly Disappointing Movie
Did you know
- TriviaWhen the film was released, director Mathieu Kassovitz called it a "bad episode of 24 (2001)." In an interview with amctv.com, Kassovitz said that 20th Century Fox interfered throughout production, and he never had a chance to shoot a scene the way it was scripted, or the way he wanted it to be.
- GoofsWhen we are first introduced to Auroa, you can see she has her tongue pierced with a gold barbell in a couple of close-ups when she is talking. Her character would obviously not have had her tongue pierced for many reasons, not the least being she has never ventured out into the world. In later shots, the piercing is no longer there.
- Quotes
Sister Rebeka: Aurora could speak when she was two years old.
Toorop: Oh, a lot of kids speak at two.
Sister Rebeka: Not 19 different languages.
- Alternate versions20th Century Fox and Studio Canal released this film in different countries separately (since it is a co-production between the two companies). However, the version released by Fox (released for example in the United States and Great Britain) runs 90 minutes whereas the Studio Canal versions runs 101 minutes (released for example in France and Germany).
- SoundtracksDeuces
Written by RZA (as Robert Diggs) and Shavo Odadjian
Performed by Achozen
Courtesy of UrSession Records, Wu Music Group and Columbia Records
Published by Universal Music Careers and Allyomusic (BMI)
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $70,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $22,532,572
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $9,484,627
- Aug 31, 2008
- Gross worldwide
- $72,109,200
- Runtime
- 1h 30m(90 min)
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1






