BabylonA.d. Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Pineapple Express
It might seem like your everyday stoner comedy, but Pineapple Express is a strange comedic beast. It was helmed by dramatic indie filmmaker David Gordon Green, it brought Huey Lewis and the News back to the world of cinema songwriting, and, of course, it gave us an excellent duo to get high with -- Seth Rogen and James Franco. Buy it on DVD or Blu-ray.

Righteous Kill
Righteous Kill is right, but not in the way that makes the eyes blaze with excitement, but the way that makes you groan in disappointment. While joining heavy weights Robert De Niro and Al Pacino was a big to-do, that was the only noteworthy piece of this police v. serial killer story. Still, it's Rob and Al, so if you're curious: Rent it on DVD or Blu-ray.

Disaster Movie
Oh, if only we could be back in the days of Airplane. Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer show no signs of stopping their terrible spoof addiction, and this time it's all about disasters. Need I say more? Skip it on DVD or Blu-ray.

Hit the jump for more new releases.

The most exciting news from Labor Day weekend at the box-office -- traditionally a slow period -- is that America seems to have caught on to the scam that Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer have been running for... what is it now? Almost three years? (I'm not counting the Scary Movie franchise, which always retained some redeeming value despite their idiocy.) Anyway, their latest travesty, Disaster Movie, opened to $6.9 million over four days, just over a third of the (nearly identical to each other) first three-day weekends for Date Movie, Epic Movie and Meet the Spartans. Could that be the end of that?

Not that any of Disaster Movie's competitors did spectacularly better. The strongest of them -- the poorly-reviewed sci-fi flick Babylon A.D. -- only managed second place and a $12 million four-day. Don Cheadle's Traitor came in fifth with $10 million, which I actually think is robust for an barely-marketed film opening on just over 2,000 screens. College crashed and burned, landing outside the top 10 with $2.6 million. The best explanation is that there simply wasn't any reason to see it.

The holdovers did well. Mamma Mia!, now in its seventh weekend of release, continues to lurk in the bottom half of the top 10; its take actually grew compared to last weekend, even if you use the 3-day numbers. It's up to $133 million. The Dark Knight barely lost steam, going from fourth place to third and breaking the $500 million threshold. Vicky Cristina Barcelona also continues to do very well on under 700 screens. And of course, Tropic Thunder managed a third weekend atop the charts, leapfrogging past Pineapple Express.

The full estimates after the jump.

Just going by the poster and the trailer, you could probably recognize Babylon A.D. as a bloated big-budget science fiction film. But after viewing the film, and with a few facts to put the film in context -- like the fact 20th Century Fox didn't screen Babylon A.D. for critics, like the fact director Mathieu Kassovitz has already disavowed the film, like the numb dumb clang of every line of dialogue in it -- you realize that Babylon A.D. is a bad, bloated big-budget science fiction film that doesn't even have the distinction of being memorably horrible or bravely idiotic or fascinatingly inept; it's simply an inert mass, a lump of product, a failure too expensive to simply discard.

In a near-future Europe (we're never told the year, but when someone mentions the last Siberian tiger died in 2017, it's implied that was a while ago), a mercenary named Toorop (Vin Diesel) is hired to escort a young woman and her guardian from a monastery in Mongolia to New York. The young woman, Aurora (Mélanie Thierry) has never left the convent; her watchful protector, Sister Rebeka (Michelle Yeoh), cautions Toorop that Aurora is to be shielded from the world. Toorop's taken the job for the payoff -- he's been promised a wad of cash and, more importantly, a new passport that'll get him off the terrorist watchlist that's exiled him from America -- but as Toorop, Rebekah and Aurora travel through the ruined places of tomorrow, they begin to bond. ...

Tropic Thunder held onto the top spot for two weeks in a row, followed by The House Bunny and Death Race. Last week's two other newbies The Longshots and The Rocker took the number 10 and 13th spots respectively. Here's what the top five looked like:

1. Tropic Thunder: $16.2 million
2. The House Bunny: $14.5 million
3. Death Race: $12.6 million
4. The Dark Knight: $10.5 million
5. Star Wars: The Clone Wars: $5.6 million

Babylon A.D.
What's It All About: Vin Diesel stars in this futuristic actioner as a bodyguard charged with delivering a young woman from Russia to the U.S. Little does he realize that she is hosting an organism that a cult hopes to use to create a new messiah.
Why It Might Do Well: While not on a par with this Summer's biggest flicks, Babylon A.D. represents the last gasp of the season's eye candy movies and it's getting a really wide release.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Those thinking this might be a big screen version of Babylon 5 may be in for a disappointment. Also, with five reviews in, Rottentomatoes.com is giving this 0% rotten as of this writing.
Number of Theaters: 3,200
Prediction: $23 million

College
What's It All About: Drake Bell from Nikolodeon's Drake and Josh plays one of several high school kids on a college visit looking to party. Hijinks and projectile vomiting ensue.
Why It Might Do Well: Someone must feel nostalgic for those bowl-hugging college days.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Because part of me wants to believe there is justice in the universe.
Number of Theaters: 2,000
Prediction: $5 million

Disaster Movie
What's It All About: Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, the writer/director team behind Meet the Spartans, Epic Movie and the Scary Movie franchise go to the well once again with a flick that parodies disaster movies, super hero flicks and various pop culture icons.
Why It Might Do Well: Like them or not, Friedberg and Seltzer's movies tend to make a respectable if not stellar profit.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Maybe the public has had enough of these things. I can dream, can't I?
Number of Theaters: 2,500
Prediction: $11 million

Traitor
(opens Wednesday)
What's It All About: Don Cheadle stars in this tale of international intrigue as a deep cover CIA agent under investigation by the FBI as a possible terrorist.
Why It Might Do Well: In addition to Cheadle the impressive cast includes Guy Pearce and Jeff Daniels.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Fresh off the Summer blockbuster season, will audiences want a film about such weighty matters?
Number of Theaters: 2,054
Prediction: $9 million

Box office predictions become a much wilder and woolier proposition once blockbuster season ends, making it all the more exciting if you ask me. Here's what I think next week's top five will be:
1. Babylon A.D.
2. Disaster Movie
3. Traitor
4. Tropic Thunder
5. Death Race

Last week's top five took us all by surprise. Most didn't think Tropic Thunder would take another week at number one, and many expected The Rocker to do better. Here's how we all did:
1. LostinaFog: 7
2. I Eat Robots: 6
2. Romel: 6
2. Smiggy: 6
2. Victor de la torre: 6
2. Mike: 6
2. Adam P: 6
2. Vera: 6
3. Matt: 4
3. Chris: 4
3. Alex: 4
3. Liz: 4
3. Vega: 4
3. Zctop: 4
3. NP: 4
3. Ray: 4
3. VP: 4
3. AJ Wiley: 4
3. Greatone: 4

Post your predictions for the top five movies in the comments section below before 5:00PM Eastern Time on Friday. One point for every top five movie correctly named, two points for every correct placement, and one extra point for the top movie.

It comes as little surprise whenever a studio decides to kindly remove a film from a director's hands -- the situation with Lionsgate's treatment of Punisher: War Zone still smells fishy from this end -- but while most filmmakers would proceed to bite their tongues and salvage their careers, Mathieu Kassovitz begs to differ on his own film, the Vin Diesel vehicle Babylon A.D., which opens this Friday in an all-too-familiar August dump situation (joining it on the marquee: alleged comedies Disaster Movie and College).

In an exclusive interview with AMC's sci-fi blog, Kassovitz admits that a troubled production and comprised final cut (at least in the States, although reviews from elsewhere aren't much kinder) are responsible for turning his adaptation of Maurice Georges Dantec's futuristic novel into "pure violence and stupidity... like a bad episode of '24'."

I'll admit it; I have a soft spot for Vin Diesel. Feel free to laugh at me, but I can't help myself, it's something about that voice. So you might want to keep my personal bias in mind when I say that Babylon A.D. really doesn't look all that bad. Silly? Yes, but entertaining none the less. Ropes of Silicon found the latest poster for the sci-fi flick from Gothika director Mathieu Kassovitz and if nothing else, it's a step up from the first one-sheet/Oakley ad we saw a few months ago.

Diesel stars as Toorop, a mercenary who takes the job of escorting a woman from Eastern Europe to New York. But if you have seen the trailer, you know that there is a lot more to this lady than meets the eye. Say what you will about the film, but you have to admit, some of those 'Bladerunneresque' shots of the city were pretty impressive. Starring alongside Diesel is the criminally underused Michelle Yeoh as an a**-kicking nun, as well as, Gerard Depardieu, and Charlotte Rampling.

Babylon has had rough time throughout production. The project started back in 2005, when Kassovitz was hired to adapt the novel, Babylon Babies. Originally the French actor Vincent Cassel was expected to take the lead, but Diesel decided to drop out of Hitman (probably not a bad idea all things considered) to lobby for the role. It was even speculated that the move caused bad blood between Cassel and Kassovitz, and ruined a long standing friendship. As if that wasn't enough stress; there were also delays from weather and talk about the film running over budget.

Hopefully all these problems won't be showing up on the screen when Babylon A.D. opens in theaters on August 29th.

We're soon approaching the three-year anniversary of covering Vin Diesel's eternally forthcoming future-set thriller, Babylon A.D. - on the 24th, baby! - and in perhaps an uncanny move to soothe our patience pains, IGN Movies has delivered the film's first domestic trailer.

The result comes across as The Transporter by way of Children of Men, if Jason Statham and Clive Owen were then replaced by Sir Diesel and some snowmobiles. Sure, it might turn out to be zippy late-summer fun, but moving one's release date from February to August doesn't exactly qualify as a vote of confidence in any respect.

Oh, and as for those rumors that only half of Babylon will make it to the States, CHUD picked up on some counter-rumors that suggest such is not the case. We may not know how legitimate this MySpace source of theirs is, but I struggle to believe that this thing could ever have run 160 minutes, only to lose almost half of that running time in select territories. In fact, I'm fairly certain that, to some medical professionals, behavior like that qualifies as an 'episode' of some sort.

Directed by Mathieu Kassovitz, Babylon A.D. opens on August 29th, opposite Disaster Movie and College, which are bound to be 'episodes' in their own right.

Is it just me, or does it seem like Vin Diesel can't catch a break when it comes to sci-fi movies? Twitch is reporting that Diesel's latest, Babylon A.D., has undergone a serious edit and the film has been reduced from a running time of 160 minutes to a mere 90. Just so we have this straight, it looks like Fox has cut the film pretty much in half. It had been reported that two distinct versions of the film (one for European audiences and one for the US) were going to hit theaters, but now we'll all be getting the same version since a 90-minute cut was submitted to the UK's BBFC for certification.

Babylon A.D. was directed by Mathieu Kassovitz, and it centers on a young woman who has been infected with a virus that could wipe out humanity. Diesel plays a mercenary who's been charged with escorting this walking time bomb from Russia to New York City. Joining Diesel is Michelle Yeoh as a butt-kicking nun and Mélanie Thierry as Aurora, the futuristic 'Typhoid Mary'. Originally the film was expected to be a dark action flick (what else could it be with Kassovitz at the helm?) but according to Twitch, the film is now aiming for a PG-13 rating.

See, stuff like this just bugs me. According to Twitch (via the Babylon A.D. production blog), two different versions of Vin Diesel's Babylon A.D. will be hitting theaters far apart from one another. It's not that I care so much about seeing a longer version of the film in theaters (which, apparently, is what will take place in the UK), it's just that Fox has once again decided to release a film in the UK first and then wait six months before putting it in theaters here in the states. You'll remember something similar happened with Danny Boyle's Sunshine earlier this year. The film was released in several cities around the world in March, but Fox decided to hold it back until December. Luckily, we're still not waiting for the film because Fox ultimately chose to stuff Sunshine into an already-packed summer line-up.

Anyway, UK folks will supposedly get to see a two hour and forty minute version of Babylon A.D. early next year when it's released across the pond. However, Fox has decided they will in no way ask people to sit through a three-hour Vin Diesel film in America, so they're going to trim that sucker down to a reasonable time and release it on August 29. In my opinion, this is a stupid move because by the time it's released in the states, copies of that sucker will be all over the internet, etc. I remember a good month after Sunshine was released in the UK, that film was all over the place -- one of my friends actually had it, and asked if I wanted a copy. I did not take it. I wanted to see the film in theaters. And I did.

Babylon A.D., a pet project for Diesel, follows a Veteran-turned-mercenary who's placed in charge of escorting a woman from Russia to China. What he doesn't know is that this woman is to host an organism that a cult wants to harvest in order to produce a new Messiah. The film was originally supposed to be released in the states on February 28, the same day as the UK, and I imagine they're taking the extra time to trim. Here's my question: Would you even be interested in a two hour and forty minute Vin Diesel sci-fi flick? And does watching the man for that long make a person stupider?

[via Slashfilm]