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Movies / On DVD / Babylon A.D.
Babylon A.D.

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Babylon A.D. (2008)

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Reviews Counted:96

Fresh:7

Rotten:89

Average Rating:3.2/10

Consensus: A poorly constructed, derivative sci-fi stinker with a weak script and poor action sequences.

Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for intense sequences of violence and action, language and some sexuality.

Runtime: 1 hr 41 mins

Genre: Action/Adventure

Theatrical Release:Aug 29, 2008 Wide

Box Office: $22,489,779

Synopsis: In sci-fi thriller BABYLON A.D., Vin Diesel's Toorop is an antihero who quotes the best of cinema's bad boys from films such as THE GODFATHER and SCARFACE. But all the tattooed muscleman really... In sci-fi thriller BABYLON A.D., Vin Diesel's Toorop is an antihero who quotes the best of cinema's bad boys from films such as THE GODFATHER and SCARFACE. But all the tattooed muscleman really wants to do is leave poverty- and violence-ridden Russia and return to his family's home in upstate New York. However, he has been banned from his native America, so when a Russian mobster (a prosthetic-enhanced Gérard Depardieu) offers him a job and a forged passport that will take him back home, he agrees, even though the mission seems close to suicide. He takes a strangely gifted orphan named Aurora (Melanie Thierry) from a Mongolian convent to Harlem, his only help being a nun--though it is a nun played by action star Michelle Yeoh. Thugs attack them on every leg of their journey, following them as they take car, train, sub, and snowmobile to ensure Aurora's safety. BABYLON A.D works best when it's revealing facets of its futuristic world, from the refugee-camp look of Russia to the high-tech gloss of a 22-million-people-strong New York City. Production designers Sonja Klaus and Paul Cross, as well as director Mathieu Kassovitz (GOTHIKA), deserve praise for creating settings that evoke memories of dystopian films from BLADE RUNNER to CHILDREN OF MEN. Kassovitz, who is most familiar to audiences as the object of affection in AMELIE, also adapted the script from the Maurice G. Dantec novel BABYLON BABIES with Eric Besnard. The book weighed in at over 500 pages, so there are times when it feels like something is missing in BABYLON A.D. with its brief 90-minute run time. In small roles, Depardieu and French favorite Charlotte Rampling (who plays a mysterious religious leader) provide substance and gravitas. [More]

Starring: Vin Diesel, Michelle Yeoh, Melanie Thierry, Lambert Wilson

Starring: Vin Diesel, Michelle Yeoh, Melanie Thierry, Lambert Wilson, Mark Strong, Jerome Le Banner, Charlotte Rampling, Gérard Depardieu

Director: Mathieu Kassovitz

Director: Mathieu Kassovitz
Screenwriter: Mathieu Kassovitz, Eric Besnard
Producer: Ilan Goldman
Composer: Atli Orvarsson
Studio: 20th Century Fox

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Jan 6, 2009

[DVD Details]
 
 
  • In the darkly futuristic world of Babylon A.D., the rules are simple: kill or be killed. Hard-hitting action superstar Vin Diesel (The Fast and the Furious, The Chronicles of Riddick), stars as Toorop, a ruthless mercenary hired to smuggle a mysterious young woman from the post-apocalyptic confines of Eastern Europe to the glittering megalopolis of New York City. Hunted at every turn, Toorop spirits his charge across a nightmarish wasteland only to uncover a shocking secret that will bring the entire world to its knees. Eye-popping action and mind-blowing science fiction clash head-on in this hard-edged thriller, where the only rule is survival.
  • Source: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
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    Reviews for Babylon A.D.

    • T-Meter Critics
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    1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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    There are moments here that are spectacular, and there are many more that are spectacular failures.

    Full Review Source: DVDTalk.com | comment Comment
    01/29/09
    David Cornelius
    David Cornelius
    DVDTalk.com

    Kakostimeni apopeira foytoyristikis klotsoperipeteias, me metaiores senariakes akrobasies, tsoyhteres eksarseis melodramatismoy, asygkratites aythairesies metafysikoy kai enohlitikes omoiotites me to Pempto Stoiheio (1997), poy dinoyn neo noima stin euro-

    Full Review Source: Movies for the Masses | comment Comment
    01/20/09
    Joseph Proimakis
    Joseph Proimakis
    Movies for the Masses

    With bland protagonists and power figures unpleasant enough for us to want them out of our sight more than we want them defeated, it doesn't do much to hold our interest.

    Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | comment Comment
    01/12/09
    Brian Webster
    Brian Webster
    Apollo Guide

    Skip it aggressively.

    Full Review Source: At the Movies | comment Comment
    11/07/08
    Ben Mankiewicz
    Ben Mankiewicz
    At the Movies
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    I unfortunately had a seat that faced the screen and I have two hours of my life that I will never get back.

    Full Review Source: At the Movies | comment 1 Comment
    11/07/08
    Ben Lyons
    Ben Lyons
    At the Movies
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Think of it as Sunset Bloodsport with Jean-Claude as Norma Desmond.

    Full Review Source: Slate | comment Comment
    11/06/08
    Grady Hendrix
    Grady Hendrix
    Slate

    This occasionally lavish, often clunky venture is consistently watchable if not terribly memorable or distinctive.

    Full Review Source: Screen International | comment Comment
    10/18/08
    Lisa Nesselson
    Lisa Nesselson
    Screen International

    I call it (sneeringly, natch) the 'New Nihilism,' but, to be fair, it's really just the old, Franco-Prussian existential angst hole ratcheted up and dumbed down for our not so brave new world.

    Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
    10/18/08
    Marc Savlov
    Marc Savlov
    Austin Chronicle

    As if the gruff dialogue isn’t bad enough, the action scenes are merely adequate.

    Full Review Source: Houston Community Newspapers | comment Comment
    10/18/08
    Gary Brown
    Gary Brown
    Houston Community Newspapers

    Strap yourself in for some pure violence and stupidity.

    Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald | comment Comment
    10/10/08
    Paul Byrnes
    Paul Byrnes
    Sydney Morning Herald

    Whatever happened to Mathieu Kassovitz, the French actor director whose amazing film La Haine made such an impact 13 years ago?

    Full Review Source: At the Movies (Australia) | comment Comment
    10/10/08
    David Stratton
    David Stratton
    At the Movies (Australia)

    With his face like a squashed doughnut, and physique like the tyres of a huge truck, Diesel just doesn't inhabit the same planet as Rampling or even Kassovitz himself.

    Full Review Source: MovieTime, ABC Radio National | comment Comment
    10/03/08
    Ruth Hessey
    Ruth Hessey
    MovieTime, ABC Radio National

    With a messy storyline and screenplay to boot, the film feels disjointed and lacking true punch.

    Full Review Source: FILMINK (Australia) | comment Comment
    10/03/08
    FILMINK (Australia)

    If Kassovitz really believed he had a classic in the making, why didn't he take a stand and nix the casting of Diesel while he had the chance?

    Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph (Australia) | comment Comment
    10/03/08
    Leigh Paatsch
    Leigh Paatsch
    Daily Telegraph (Australia)

    It's as though the film's final act was accidentally deleted on the digital editing console.

    Full Review Source: The Age (Australia) | comment Comment
    10/03/08
    Jim Schembri
    Jim Schembri
    The Age (Australia)

    Mathieu Kassovitz is making a determined challenge for the stylish French sci-fi thriller crown of Luc Besson with this highly effective, highly charged action movie, even though he has had to rather mangle the novel on which it is based

    Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
    09/28/08
    Andrew L. Urban
    Andrew L. Urban
    Urban Cinefile

    It's unclear which is worse -- to so liberally steal from films like Children of Men and Minority Report, or to be so offensively dumb in the process.

    Full Review Source: Spectrum (St. George, Utah) | comment Comment
    09/27/08
    Bruce Bennett
    Bruce Bennett
    Spectrum (St. George, Utah)

    Por piores que sejam os problemas presentes nos dois primeiros atos do filme, estes nem se comparam aos pavorosos 20 minutos finais, que parecem ter sido montados de qualquer maneira para concluir a narrativa rapidamente.

    Full Review Source: Cinema em Cena | comment Comment
    09/19/08
    Pablo Villaca
    Pablo Villaca
    Cinema em Cena

    The fact that Aurora incarnates some extreme other possibility -- be it "light" or darkness, miraculous birth or genocide -- makes her one more "mother of the future."

    Full Review Source: PopMatters | comment Comment
    09/12/08
    Cynthia Fuchs
    Cynthia Fuchs
    PopMatters

    Loses the few bits of intriguing groundwork it lays amidst a cacophony of mangled editing, lethargic performances, and an utterly unfocused and often contradictory narrative

    Full Review Source: Dark Horizons | comment Comment
    09/11/08
    Garth Franklin
    Garth Franklin
    Dark Horizons
     
     
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