Rating Advisory: for intense sequences of violence and action, language and some sexuality. Trailer at bottom of post.
Starring : Vin Diesel,Michelle Yeoh,Melanie Thierry,Girard Depardieu,Charlotte Rampling
Synopsis :
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. It is a world made for hardened warriors, one of whom, a mercenary known only as Toorop, lives by a simple survivor's code: kill or be killed. His latest assignment has him smuggling a young woman named Aurora from a convent in Kazakhstan to New York City. Toorop, his new young charge Aurora and Aurora's guardian Sister Rebeka embark on a 6,000-mile journey that takes them from Eastern Europe, through a refugee camp in "New Russia," across the Bering Straight in a pilfered submarine, then through the frozen tundra of Alaska and Canada, and finally to New York. Facing obstacles at every turn, Toorop, the killer for hire, is tested like never before, in ways he could never have imagined--as he comes to understand that he is the custodian of the only hope for the future of mankind. For the first time in his life, Toorop has to make a choice: to make a difference or walk away and save himself. Too bad it came on the day he died.
Vin Diesal
This is a Vin Diesal dominated film. If you appreciate Vin Diesal, and all his subtly, you will like this movie. If you are a critical movie watcher, however, this movie will rate low. Even the director panned it, saying the studio (Fox) destroyed what he had hoped to make.
Vin Diesel (born Mark Sinclair Vincent; July 18, 1967) is an American actor, writer, director, and producer. While he prefers to identify himself as a "multi-faceted" actor he has played a number of similar roles,this role falls into his `ussual tough guy character.'
Diesel has Italian and Black ancestry. He has described himself as "definitely a person of color" and stated that he is "of ambiguous ethnicity - Italian and a lot of other stuff". Diesel has never met his biological father, and was raised by his African-American stepfather, Irving, an acting instructor and theatre manager,
Vin Diesel has a daughter, Hania Riley, born April 2, 2008, with his girlfriend, model Paloma Jimenez.
My reaction to Babylon A.D
It opens with a gritty counterbalance between the sacred and the profane, a prayer before a meal, an execution without pity. It plays on the counter balance of technological advancement at the same time as societies decay. It puts the unholy with the holy, and plays with the ultimate meaning. That's how I felt after the first five minutes.
Much of the movie seems stolen from What do Children of Men, with little Fifth Element ( a movie the director had a small acting role in) and Minority Report, and is full of post-Matrix, follow-the-flying-projectile effects that had no payoff except a major explosion.
I especially did not like Melanie Thierry's character. As one reviewer wrote " As the plot's potential Mary (Typhoid or Virgin), she's a whiny, wounded little brat. When we're introduced to her, she's supposed to be wide-eyed and innocent. By the end, she's so smug and self-righteous we can't wait for her moment of martyrdom. In between tantrums aimed at showing how salient she is, Kassovitz treats her like a prop -- necessary for the narrative but lacking any reason for empathy or concern."
FUN pre-release trailer:
so-called official trailer to the Mathieu Kassovitz-directed/co-scripted action sci-fi has come out. Uniquely made, the video lampooned most of highlighted movies this summer from "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" to "Sex and the City" and "The Dark Knight".
The Director Slams his own film
Filmmaker Mathieu Kassovitz has blamed Twentieth Century Fox bosses for savagely editing his forthcoming film Babylon A.D., comparing the final cut to "a bad episode of 24".
The French director insists studio executives battled against him throughout the sci-fi movie's production, first slashing his budget and later cutting out 15 minutes of the film he believed to be crucial to the plot.
He says: "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... All the action scenes had a goal: They were supposed to be driven by either a metaphysical point of view or experience for the characters.
"Instead parts of the movie are like a bad episode of 24."
Now Kassovitz admits he regrets striking a deal with the corporation in the first place. He adds: "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 shit."
(Ref )
Though sending a bad vibe, the 41-year-old still noted that there are some parts of it that he likes saying, "I like the energy of it and I got some scenes I'm happy with. But I know what I had - I had something much better in my hands but I just wasn't allowed to work." He also said, "The scope of the original book was quite amazing. The author was very much into geopolitics and how the world is going to evolve. He saw that as wars evolve, it won't be just about territories any more, but money-driven politics. As a director it's something that's very attractive to do."
Adapted from Maurice Georges Dantec's French novel Babylon Babies.
http://www.aceshowbiz.com/images/events/LRS-038016.jpg = directors pic
Mathieu Kassovitz (born 3 April 1967) is a French director, screenwriter, producer and actor, and is considered one of contemporary France's top emerging film talents,
Kassovitz is most famous outside France for his role as Nino Quincampoix in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's film Amélie. Among many other credits, he also had small roles in La Haine (which he also directed), Birthday Girl, Café Au Lait and The Fifth Element. He also played one of the main roles in Amen. (2003) by Costa-Gavras. Kassovitz is also recognizable for playing a conflicted Belgian explosives expert in Steven Spielberg's controversial 2005 film Munich, alongside Eric Bana and Geoffrey Rush. He explained several times he accepted acting parts only for the experience of knowing what it is to act, to be able to be a better director of actors afterward, to meet directors he admires and learn from them by working with them, and to take part in great projects.
Kassovitz set up the film production firm MNP Entreprise in 2000 "to develop and produce feature films by Kassovitz and to represent him as a director and actor."[4] MNP Entreprise is responsible for the co-productions of a number of films including Avida (2006) in which Kassovits acts and Babylon A.D. which he directed. Kassovitz purchased the film rights for the novel Johnny Mad Dog by Congolese writer Emmanuel Dongala. The film was also co-produced by MNP Entreprise, and directed by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire. The premiere of the film was made at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival where it was screened within the Un Certain Regard section.[5] MNP Entreprise's upcoming titles are Rebellion and MNP. Kassovitz will both star in and direct Rebellion, a war film based on a true story of French commandos who clashed with tribes in New Caledonia, the Melanesian territory of France. The film will start shooting at the end of 2008. The science fiction film MNP is named after Mir Space Station, whose writing in Cyrillic letters (Мир) look like the letters MNP, and also the production company. The film is set to start shooting in 2011. [6]
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