Screen Rant » babylon a d

Babylon A.D. Blu-ray Review

Vic Holtreman — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 01:14:00 +0000

Vin Diesel returned to the big screen in 2008 in Babylon A.D. – a Sci-Fi post-apocalyptic flick in which he is tasked with delivering a young woman named Aurora (Mélanie Thierry) from Russia to America. His name is Toorop, and he’s a veteran mercenary who seems to be tired of war and looks to this job as an opportunity to get to America.

Toorop is tasked to do this by who seems to be the biggest gangster in the war-torn and over-populated city where he lives. It’s a big payday and a chance to leave this place behind. Toorop is taken to an ancient monastery far away from the slums to pick up Aurora and her guardian Rebeka (Michelle Yeoh). While Rebeka gives off a vibe of being able to protect herself, Aurora has been very much sheltered from the world – we get a sense that there is something special about her.

The bulk of the film is basically the story of their attempts to get out of the country despite an opposing force trying to capture Aurora as well. It’s actually pretty effective during this majority part of the movie, including a number of great action scenes involving a cage fight, escape from a refugee camp and a snowmobile chase.

The movie completely shifts gears when they finally make it to New York City, where the leader of a psuedo-religion wants Aurora for some mysterious reason – which she is certain will give their movement the final push it needs to lock its position of power in the world.

Over the course of the film all three major characters go through changes and they come to trust each other despite Toorop’s ice-cold “trust no one” worldview.

This film had a lot of behind the scenes controversy, with French director Mathieu Kassovitz ending up livid at 20th Century Fox for their intrusion into the filmmaking process and the cuts they made to the film. Unfortunately I never saw the theatrical version so I don’t know how this “Raw & Uncut” version of the film compares. I’ll say that it wasn’t really that bad, however I probably wouldn’t buy this. If you can rent it in the Blu-Ray format however, I think it’s worth watching once.

The audio and the picture on this disc are impressive, with lots of use of surround and great panoramic vistas that always look fantastic in Hi-Def. It has quite a few special features:

There is an 11 minute interview with the author of the story the film is based on, “Babylon Babies,” Maurice Georges Dantec. If you can get past the pretensions of the guy (sunglasses during an interview, oddly greasy “I am cool” hair) he actually gives some interesting background about the story. The interview however actually left me feeling like his story must have started at the exact moment the film most oddly ends.

The features also include a look at the shooting of the “Arctic Escape” scenes “Flight of the Hummers” and other features on the film’s big stunt scenes. In addition there’s also a 5 minute video comic about Aurora that serves as a prequel to the film. One thing that’s missing is a director’s commentary, which in the case of this film considering its history would have been very interesting to hear. Of course it’s not surprising that such a commentary isn’t on the film considering Fox produced the disc.

What I didn’t like about the Blu-Ray version was that I couldn’t hit the “Play” button to see how far along I was in the film – no pop-up progress bar. Also the menu picks were extremely small and hard to navigate, even on my 60″ HDTV.

Overall I’d say this film isn’t nearly as awful as everyone makes it out to be, except for the rather abrupt ending that leaves you feeling like a bunch more of the movie is missing.

You Might Also Be Interested In:

Screen Rant Guests On The Cinema Blend Podcast

Vic Holtreman — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 03:59:29 +0000

I know that people have asked why we don’t have a regular podcast here at Screen Rant. I made an attempt about a year ago to do a weekly podcast before we had a great stable of writers, and I found it extremely difficult to do alone.

So what about now, you ask? Now it’s an issue of time, or rather not enough of it, plus trying to coordinate a time that most of us can get together when we are located across the country (with Niall in the UK!).

However this week Cinemablend was nice enough to invite me to join their regular weekly podcast “The Weekly Blend” and it was a lot of fun. Rafe, Margaret and Tim over there are all very cool and fun to chat with about our favorite topic: movies.

I thought it went pretty well and it actually gave me a little kick in the pants as far as thinking more seriously about doing a regular podcast here at Screen Rant (don’t hold your breath, though). My next podcast appearance will probably be over at /Film some time in the next few weeks.

This week’s discussion included movies that opened this week (including Babylon A.D., Disaster Movie, Traitor and College) but the main topic was the 2008 Summer movie season. What we liked or disliked, surprises and disappointments. How did The Dark Knight compare to Iron Man, why didn’t The Incredible Hulk do any better, Kung Fu Panda vs Wall-E, and more.

You can listen to it right here, and I’d love to hear what you think!

Click here to listen to the podcast.

You Might Also Be Interested In:

Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: August 31, 2008

Niall Browne — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 16:04:44 +0000

I can’t believe that it’s now the end of August! Soon the winter blockbusters will be knocking at our door and the next thing you know it’ll be Oscar time again. Where does time go? Is it playing like a re-run somewhere, can you just flick to another dimension to a time where you are still awaiting a fourth Indiana Jones movie? Who knows, but I do know that it’s another Weekend Movie News Wrap up featuring a new aspect: a weekend box office update.

This week:

After our box office round-up we see what George Clooney and Jason Reitman are doing Up in the Air, we find out what former superhero is joining the Toy Story franchise, we look at who might be helming the Poltergeist movie and the Voltron film and what is new on the Inglorious Bastards casting front.

Weekend Box Office

It looks like Tropic Thunder will retain its box office crown and gross another $14-16 million over the Labor day weekend. Fox’s tinkering with Babylon A.D. didn’t do any good as the film will only bank $11-13 million this weekend. Ouch – what a summer Fox has had!

Don Cheadle’s Traitor did a modest $2.2 million on Friday and it should bank $10 million when all is said and done over the weekend. Meanwhile Disaster Movie was a disaster coining only $2 million on Friday – look for an $8 million weekend.

Death Race crashed an burned on its second weekend dropping a mighty 63% grossing just $1.7 million on Friday. Look for a little over $8 million by the end of Labor Day weekend.

Art house hit The Dark Knight will have crossed the $500 million barrier and the Caped Crusader epic should bank about another $11.5 million. Holy legs, Batman!

Movie News

1. Speaking of Batman, former Dark Knight George Clooney has signed on to Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air. The comedy film follows a business man who is addicted to collecting air miles. Sounds strange and quirky so it should be up Clooney’s street. I imagine it’ll fly high in awards season!

Source: Variety

2. Another former Batman, Michael Keaton has signed on to Toy Story 3. Keaton will play Ken (of Ken and Barbie fame). His other half will be voiced by Jodi Benson. Benson was also the voice of Ariel in The Little Mermaid. I didn’t know that already. Seriously.

Source: IESB

3. It looks like the Poltergeist remake has snagged itself a director. Vadim Perelman director of House of Sand and Fog is in talks to direct the horror film. Nothing is set in stone yet, so this could change. Heck, they could even give Brett Ratner a call.

Source: Bloody Disgusting

4. More Bastards have landed (that’s a Peter Jackson reference for you). Christoph Waltz has joined Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Bastards as the main evil-doer of the film, Colonel Hans Landa. Meanwhile National Treasure star Diane Kruger has also come on-board the film, in the role first intended for the much older Nastassja Kinski.

Source: CHUD

5. The Voltron movie has nabbed a director in the form of Max Makowski. The film is a Transformers-esque giant robot movie. Makowski has in the past brought us One Last Dance (a film that I have sitting on DVD but have never watched), as well as episodes of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.

No, seriously, he did. I have nothing to say about this. Nothing at all.

I will say that there’s probably a joke in there somewhere.

Source: Latino Review

That’s it for another week. See you at the movies!

You Might Also Be Interested In:

Will Babylon A.D. Cancel Vin Diesel’s Comeback?

Heath McKnight — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:58:26 +0000

As Babylon A.D., the futuristic film starring Vin Diesel, rolls out into theaters one has to wonder: Will this help give the actor with a once-promising movie career the comeback he deserves?

There was very little advertising for Babylon A.D. up until just a couple of weeks ago, but the real kicker is that last week the director himself slammed Fox Studios. Fox produced and is releasing the movie, and he says that executive meddling has ruined the film.

So I’m asking: If Babylon A.D. bombs, will it be the failure that flatlines Vin Diesel’s career for good?

Over at Rotten Tomatoes, Babylon A.D. currently has 28 reviews posted so far, with a rotten level of only 7% of them being positive. OUCH! Plus, director Mathieu Kassovitz (Gothika and the insane and insanely good La Haine) has been complaining about the way Fox (mis-) treated the film from day one.

Depending on various sources, 15-30 minutes was allegedly cut from the film in order to make it more appealing to American audiences. (Rumor has it there will be a longer version for the international release.) And, as often happens, that ‘trimming process’ is said to have left the film’s plot in shambles. That’s part of Kassovitz’ complaints, though he says it all started in the scripting phase.

It also doesn’t help that Fox didn’t pre-screen the movie officially to critics, which is always the telltale sign of a flop. Fox has already had a bad year at the movies, (they had the lowest box office take for Summer ‘08) and it doesn’t help that they’ve riled up fanboys over the whole Watchmen lawsuit. (For more on the Babylon A.D. fiasco with some juicy Kassovitz quotes, be sure to check out yesterday’s mid-week wrap-up.)

So what to make of all of this?

It seems to be Fox’s fault that Babylon A.D. is going to be D.O.A., and the movie’s failure is certainly not going to help Vin Diesel’s career. Vin’s white-hot streak seemed to have hit the brakes after the disappointing box office returns of Pitch Black sequel The Chronicles of Riddick all but killed a potential franchise; though that franchise may yet crawl out of the grave (more on that in a minute).

Diesel was huge after the one-two-three punch of Pitch Black (2000), The Fast and the Furious (2001) and the rotten-but-box-office hit xXx (2002). Vin Diesel was on his way to becoming the kind of bonafide action star not seen since the 80’s. Once Riddick failed (but did great as a video game, which has a sequel coming out soon), he did very few movies. Other than the surprise box-office-hit family movie, The Pacifier (2005), Vin hasn’t had much in the way of films since 2004.

Babylon A.D.’s Vin Diesel in Chronicles of Riddick

And Babylon, A.D., once touted as his return to the top, isn’t going to help him. Maybe the quiet roll-out in late August (a dumping-ground for movies much like January) won’t hurt too much. He had a cameo in The Fast and the Furious 3: Tokyo Drift as Dominic Toretto and will reprise that role, headlining the The Fast and Furious 4 which hits theaters next summer.

Add to that the fact that Pitch Black and Riddick’s talented writer/director David Twohy is said to be working on a third and fourth film in the Riddick series. Vin says this will end up being a separate trilogy from Pitch Black, which introduced the character. For more, check out our coverage.

Fans of Vin Diesel still have much love for him, and I think a large part of it is because we don’t have a solid action star filling his spot right now. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson hasn’t done a straight-up action film in quite a while and he’s not likely to return to the genre. It’s easy to imagine why fans would love to see Vin do well again. That and the fact that he’s a talented actor, who just can’t seem to reclaim his glory after Riddick bombed and xXx failed to please.

But then this is America: Land of second chances. Here’s hoping Vinny makes good on the second go around.

Sources: Ain’t It Cool News, MTV Movie News Blog, Joystiq

You Might Also Be Interested In:

Mid-Week Movie News Wrap Up

Niall Browne — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:07:52 +0000

Welcome to the first Mid-Week Movie News Wrap Up ever!

Due to the mighty success of “The Weekend Wrap Up” Screen Rant has now introduced a news segment to furnish you with even more news during the week! Hollywood is a busy place and now Screen Rant readers have the opportunity of getting even more movie news.

News this week:

We debunk Cher as Catwoman in Batman 3, look at the trouble behind Babylon AD; discuss the chances of a third Riddick movie, let you know how you could be apart of Spider-Man 4 and Woody Harrelson fights Zombies in Zombieland.

1. The Cher Catwoman story that has been doing the rounds this week is total BS! As we’ve told you before Chris Nolan hasn’t even spoken to Warner Brothers about a third film so any casting that you hear is pure speculation. The story originated here in the UK where newspapers like to make up fictional movie related news. The closet Cher has ever been to Catwoman (or ever will) was when she dated former Batman Val Kilmer in the 1980’s.

Source: The Telegraph

2. Mathieu Kassovitz, the director of Vin Diesel actioner Babylon A.D. has come out and criticized the film and the studio behind it just days before the film is to be released.

Kassovitz told AMCTV:

“I’m very unhappy with the film. I never had a chance to do one scene the way it was written or the way I wanted it to be. The script wasn’t respected. Bad producers, bad partners, it was a terrible experience. It’s pure violence and stupidity.”

In what sounds an awful lot like the troubled story behind the forthcoming X-Men Origins: Wolverine Kassovitz said this about 20th Century Fox:

“Fox was sending lawyers who were only looking at all the commas and the dots. They made everything difficult from A to Z. I should have chosen a studio that has guts. Fox was just trying to get a PG-13 movie. I’m ready to go to war against them, but I can’t because they don’t give a s–t.”

It sounds like Fox isn’t too talent friendly when it comes to genre movies these days. Alex Proyas had similar problems with the studio when making I Robot, Kassovitz seems to have been used as a studio puppet and now Gavin Hood with Wolverine issues. It’s hard to believe that this is the same studio that let George Lucas make the original Star Wars back in 1977.

Source: AMC

3. Speaking of Vin Diesel it seems like old chrome dome is interested in returning to the role that made him a household name – nope it’s not The Pacifier. Diesel has been talking up a third Riddick movie.

Diesel had this to say to MTV:

“David Twowy right now is writing the scripts. The only question is whether we take a page from the Lord of the Rings guys and try to shoot the two chapters at the same time. There are two more in mind The Chronicles of Riddick was presented as a three part trilogy that would answer Pitch Black in the same way that Lord of the Rings answered The Hobbit.”

I wonder of Vin knows what hyperbole is?

Considering the lack of bank The Chronicles of Riddick made, I think that his claims may be a tad Riddick (ulous). However, it seems that Vin has never heard the expression “you can’t go home again” he has returned to The Fast and The Furious franchise, he wants more Riddick and there are rumblings about a third Diesel powered XXX. Ouch!

Source: MTV

4. Want to be in Spider-Man 4? Now you have your chance! Joblo is reporting a story that you can now bid for the following on ebay:

A visit to the set of Spider-Man 4 (one shooting day)
- Location of visit will be determined by Sony Pictures based on scheduling of visit
A meet and greet with the cast (1 hour)
A walk-on/ extra role in the film for the auction winner only
- Role and length of screen time to be determined by Sony Pictures
Trip to the New York premiere
- Location of American premiere may be changed at Sony Pictures’ discretion
Designer outfits to wear to premiere for winner and guest from top designers
- Designers to be chosen by Sony Pictures
- Winner and guest may keep the outfits
Winner and Guest will walk the premiere’s red carpet

If I even liked the Spider-Man movies or had the five grand minimum bid I might be interested in this. However, sarcasm aside the money from the bid (if it’s legit) would be going to fight cancer (not crime) so I’m sure the rich person who wins will not only be very happy, but also feel overjoyed because they are carrying out a good deed. There might be a bit of a wait though, as no cast or director have signed on to the film… yet.

Now just imagine if a rich movie star put in a bid – just so they could be a part of the Spider-Man franchise. Who could be crazy enough? Nic Cage?

Source: Joblo and ebay

5. Like Zombie movies? Me too. So does Woody Harrelson.

The fomer Cheers star is set to battle the living dead in Zombieland. The film is a horror comedy to be directed by Ruben Fleischer.

The film follows two mis-matched friends in a world over run by Zombies. Harrelson will play a Zombie hunter named Albuquerque.

This could be good, but it could be terrible. I’ll wait to see a trailer before I judge.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

That’s it for the first ever Mid Week Wrap Up. Until next time.

You Might Also Be Interested In:

Babylon A.D. Poster, Images, Clips And Trailer Round-Up

Vic Holtreman — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:08:32 +0000

Ok, this is really weird. Over the last few months I’ve seen comments from readers asking “Hey, why aren’t you covering the new Vin Diesel movie ‘Babylon A.D’?” In my head my reaction has been, well, we haven’t covered it in depth, but of course we’ve covered it.

Except it seems we haven’t.

For some reason, amidst the Dark Knights, Iron Mans, Watchmen and Indy 4s, this one has slipped through the cracks. Well here’s our “catch up post” for Babylon A.D.

In the movie, Vin Diesel returns to the big screen as a mercenary transporting a woman who unknown to him carries a genetically modified organism. Looks to me like the sort of role that Diesel was born to play. The film also stars Michelle Yeoh.

Not too much is known about this French-made film, but the online movie community is pulling for it and hoping that it will turn out to be a great film despite the fact it hasn’t had a ton of promotion. To me there’s a tiny bit of a Children of Men vibe to it, although I realize it’s a completely different sort of film.

Since we’ve been lagging in coverage, I’m going to dogpile a bunch of posters, the trailer and clips right here for ya.

Vin Diesel in Babylon A.D.

Vin Diesel in a precarious postion in Babylon A.D.

Vin Diesel on the streets of some eastern European city

Vin Diesel admiring his gun in a scene from Babylon A.D.

Babylon A.D. poster

Babylon A.D. international poster

Finally here are a couple of TV clips and the international trailer for Babylon A.D.

[See post to watch Flash video]

Whew! That should pretty much bring you up to speed!

So what are your thoughts on this movie based on what you’ve seen so far?

Babylon A.D. opens on August 29th.

You Might Also Be Interested In: