Babel

[Vanilla]

Review/Discuss

[The Creator]

I really enjoy this movie. It is divided into four interesting stories, all loosely connected. The acting is quite superb from various members. Each storyline is unique to the plot and has its intriguing points. I particularly like the score. It's a very moving piece. I also appreciate the ending, with a nice pan out over a bright Tokyo night skyline.

A-

[CoolioD1]

D+

[4815162342]

BLAHC

[Travod]

So are there really no subtitles? I might just watch it to see how much of the Japanese I understand then

[TheMovieman]

I haven't seen Babel in years but from what I recall was it being a tad slow, even boring, in places but some good performances. IDK, this is one I might revisit one day.

C+

[baumer]

I can't even begin to describe how bad this film is. There are a number of films that just make you mad. This is one of them. It is a 7 hour film (feels like it) that should and could have been 90 minutes. It is excessive, exploitive, often pointless and contains so many scenes that are so shocking because they are just so over the top that it makes you cringe. This is one film that has me completely stumped as to where the critical acclaim is coming from. This is on my worst list for the year, and nowhere near the best list. Don't listen to the critics. This is just plain bad.This is a film that has four separate stories that are connected in the most tangential ways, that it is a mere excuse to just tell four stories, none of them are particularly interesting, and then justify the "connections" in the most ridiculous way. It's like showing someone choke on a peanut in an Oh Henry Chocolate Bar, and then show the "connection" that man has with the child that picked the peanut in Burma who happens to burn his hand at the same time the man chokes. Sounds confusing? Sounds convoluted? Sounds stupid? Try watching this movie, you'll get the point.This is a film that could have been wrapped up in 90 minutes, but instead, what we get are pointless and excessive shots of 10 minute drinking binges at a wedding. We see the band playing, people about to make love that does nothing to further the plot of the story. You have a young kid who spies on his sister and then masturbates while leaning back against a rock. You have a deaf girl who tries to screw every person she can find. You have an Ecstasy fest in a Japanese disco, and then you have Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett who are literally relegated to crying and peeing and making out in the film. How this film got made is one of the great mysteries of the year. And now that it is nominated for myriad of Oscars, it should give everyone who is a would be writer hope. If this tripe can get made and get an A-list star to back it, then we can all write a piece of crap and then get it made. My next story is going to be about a colony of ants that has to coexist with a family of anorexic and dyslexic Arabs who have an uncle in Japan who might have sold some sushi to a couple in Australia who might have shot some dingos with a Beebe gun. They are all connected somehow. George Clooney and Cameron Diaz are interested in the script.I'm not really sure what the point of the film is, but everyone in this film does the wrong thing at the right time. If you are a Mexican woman with two American kids, would you think the best thing to do is cross the border while you and your driver have been drinking for 12 hours at a wedding? Do you not think that would raise suspicions? Do you not think that the alcohol would be detected? I grew up in a border town, right across from Detroit (Windsor) and I was nervous crossing the border sober after coming back from a Red Wings game. How anyone could be this odiously zealous is beyond me. And I guess you can say that this stuff happens all the time, but really, does it? Or is this just another filler in a film filled with incoherent situations performed by idiotic people? I just can't figure it out.If you want a plot, then here it is. An American couple are on vacation in Morocco. One of them gets shot by two young Moroccan boys who are playing with their new gun in the hills. Then you have a pretty, young, vibrant, deaf-mute Japanese girl who wants to have sex with every boy or man she sees. She literally flashes her vagina to a young man in a shopping mall or whatever hangout they are at. Then she tries to sleep with her dentist, and then she gets completely naked for a policeman. And why? Because her mom killed herself and she is now lonely. Then you have the American couple's kids left alone with their Mexican nanny and she is told that she cannot go to her own son's wedding because Brad and Cate are still in Morocco. So she takes them anyway and she has sex with some dude at the wedding. This entire plot could have been done away with and the movie still would have been bad, but not as bad.The Crash-like connections in this film are so minute that they come across as desperate. The film doesn't flow and Brad and Cate are terribly miscast as husband and wife. The script in this film is unbelievably inept and when reading the screenplay, I honestly wonder if it actually alluded to the fact that there were going to be 3 minute segments with Mexican Wedding Bands playing tunes you have never heard of. Did it tell you that there would be stretches where you would be so puzzled by the actions of the characters and shocked by the lack of logic that you would want to walk out? Probably not.And by the way, why wait for an ambulance, when you have a bus? And one last observation. Is this the bullet that killed Kennedy? The magic bullet? Because apparently it was able to turn left in mid air and then conveniently land in Cate Blanchett's shoulder. Just wondering.3/10 And only because Kikuchi was believable as the pretty, vibrant, deaf, horny girl in the film.And one final note....thank the movie Gods this did not win anything significant on Oscar night!

[Travod]

Finally saw it. This was my status:

I mean, husband in wife on vacation in Morocco, wife gets shot by children playing around, huge international terrorist accusations, worldwide media attention, while simultaneously their kids have been taken into Mexico by Consuela, their illegal babysitter, and on the way back to the US they get stranded in the desert and then she leaves them alone in the desert to find help? Then there's a deaf girl in Japan - obviously I loved this part because it's Japan, but.. WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

Edited February 18, 2012 by Dragon Travtoo

[acsc1312]

I haven't seen this since it first came out on DVD, but I do remember liking it. I'm a sucker for parallel story lines/mosaics, and I thought this film did it pretty well. The beginning was a little weird at first, but once everything started going I loved it. I'll have to watch it again, but I'd give it an A- for now.

[bed005]

Was this supposed to have subtitles? I remember watching this drunk one night with a buddy and there were none. We were both confused as hell the entire time.

[RichWS]

I hate this movie.

[Plain Old Tele]

I largely agree with Baumer. The film is (mostly) a fraud. We all talk about torture porn... this is misery porn. Characters act in wildly unbelievable ways merely so that "tragedy" can strike later based on their poor choices.I think I'm being very charitable with my C rating (given because the acting was strong and the Kikuchi sequence was mostly interesting).

Edited February 21, 2012 by Telemachos

[TheMovieman]

I'm still pissed it won for Best Score because a good chunk was used previously (which i thought disqualified it from even being nominated). Hell, I even remember when the composer (Gustavo Santaolalla) won, the music played was used in the movie "The Insider" (and is even on the friggin soundtrack).

[buckethead]

A+...I remember predicting a cat would walk into the room in a scene, because the Jap chick was naked, and cat in Japanese is neiko.

[Travod]

It's neko, which does not sound like naked.

[darkelf]

Uneven, had my full attention at some times while falling flat at others. Good directing and acting but they could have easily omitted the Mexico segment.

 

7/10

[Goffe]

what are you guys talking about? this was the least tragic film of the trilogy, everyone had kind of a "happy ending".

 

It was much better than 21 Grams and Amores Perros because of two key reasons: more sympathise-able characters and much improved editing. The precise directing  is the glue that holds everything togehter. 

 

It is 10-15 minutes too long though. 75/100

Edited March 29, 2015 by Goffe