Babylon A.D.

Starring: Vin Diesel, Michelle Yeoh, Mélanie Thierry, Gérard Depardieu, Charlotte Rampling
Director: Mathieu Kassovitz
Studio: 20th Century Fox
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release: January 6th 2009

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DVD Review

It is the not-too-distant future. Thousands of satellites scan observe and monitor our every move. Much of the planet is a war zone the rest a collection of wretched way stations teeming megalopolises and vast wastelands punctuated by areas left radioactive from nuclear meltdowns. Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 01/06/2009 Starring: Vin Disesel Gerard Depardieu Run time: 90 minutes Rating: Pg13 Director: Mathieu Kassovitz

User Reviews

Cross-country body count flick - Rating: 3/5

Simple premise: drop Vin Diesel into some collapsing world of the future, give him A Quest with A Fair Maiden, arrange for plenty of guns, and stand back. Having Charlotte Rampling there for some sneering just makes it better.

The tech-grunge look of that imagined world comes across very effectively. One fight scene in a dogtown warren full of scaffolding is among the best-choreographed I've seen. The Fair Maiden is cute, but this is a guns'n'chases flick, so chastity rules. And the ending simply defies all logic. It's touching, but don't - just don't try to figure out why that payload incurs the price it does. That part just doesn't make any sense.

But, if anyone wanted a movie that made sense, they wouldn't have given Diesel a gun. Cool shoot-em-up action prevails, and that's all this movie was really about. Oh, and Michelle Yeoh showing some cool moves.

-- wiredweird

Flawed film had potential and deserves at least a rental - Rating: 3/5

This movie has a lot going for it, including marquee actors (Vin Diesel, Michelle Yeoh, Charlotte Rampling, and Gerard Depardieux) and some well done action scenes. Its the usual post-apocalypse setting, borrowing from many other films, particularly Blade Runner, Escape from New York, and Serenity.

Vin Diesel's character is hired to take a girl, who has been living in a convent for many years, to New York. The girl does some weird things, like sensing when a bomb will go off, having an encyclopedic knowledge of all sorts of trivia, and having tremendous empathy for people around her getting hurt. Turns she is some sort of experiment; a supercomputer designed to give birth to twins, i.e. two more supercomputers. Unfortunately, none of this is explained in detail nor are any reasons given as to why we should care. We are told that a church, headed by Charlotte Rampling, funded the experiment and wants to use her to recruit more followers. Meanwhile, her father, who is a scientist who dreamed up the concept that was funded by the church, doesn't want the church to exploit her.

This film could have been so much better if there were compelling reasons for caring and these reasons were given early on. As it is, just sit back and enjoy the action and try to ignore the very choppy plot.

Engaging, Entertaining Flick - Rating: 5/5

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. I was entertained from start to finish

The Vin Diesel persona works really well here. There's lots of action and intrigue with characters you can care about.

My only regret is that the movie could have been longer.

The Blu-ray picture and sound quality are top notch with vibrant colors, great contrast, and well balanced yet dynamic sound with consistently clear dialogue.

good movie - Rating: 5/5

Based purely on the entertainment factor I give it 5 stars. I havent read the book from which its based so I wont compare. I find the movie young, hip, gritty, stylish, futuristic, with great action scenes and a very cool soundtrack. I agree the last few minutes is weird, but I don't think that alone should be reason to say the whole movie sucks. Mark's ("vin diesel") character is bad ass & I love his voice. I enjoyed the movie.