Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14953 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-12-29
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 87 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
While not the career shot-in-the-arm that Vin Diesel was probably looking for and certainly needs, Babylon AD does have its merits, and they make it just the kind of fodder waiting to greet a DVD audience.

The plot of Babylon AD sees Diesel heading from Europe to New York, transporting a package that turns out to be more than it first seems. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, Diesel’s mercenary character inevitably comes up against the dangers and problems of a world in chaos and disarray. This is a cue for plenty of action, and some solid effects, all of which are easy on the eye and the brain.

The problem with Babylon AD, though, is that the plot doesn’t make a great deal of sense, and the film displays all the hallmarks of one that’s been hacked too far in the editing room. This doesn’t fatally hurt it, but it certainly inflicts a good deal of damage.

As it stands, Babylon AD is a decent, and comparably brisk futuristic thriller, that had the potential to be a lot more than it is. But at worst, it’s still enjoyable enough, and a decent way to spend an easy night in front of the telly. --Jon Foster

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 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. In small roles, Depardieu and French favourite Charlotte Rampling (who plays a mysterious religious leader) provide substance and gravitas.

Customer Reviews

Disappointing, slow and confusing
`Babylon AD' stars Vin Diesel as a mercenary who is hired to deliver a "package" from post-apocalyptic Europe to New York City. The "package" is a mysterious young woman with a secret.

Vin Diesel films are never all that intelligent but they are still amongst some of the best action films in the last decade with films such as xXx, The Fast and The Furious, Pitch Black and The Chronicles Of Riddick, so I was hoping that `Babylon AD', a film which Vin Diesel turned down the leading role in Hitman for I may add (although he still produced it), would be not too bad. Unfortunately I was wrong. What we have here is a fairly slow and dull action film that is very stingy when it comes to the action. There are only about four or five brief scenes where there is a considerable amount of action and the rest is just pointless story-building on a plot which is absolutely rubbish. The ending in particular is terrible and very confusing. I'm not sure if I missed something but it didn't make all that much sense in the last 5 or 10 minutes.

There are a few positives about this film though such as the setting which is really good with futuristic Europe and New York that I thought looked pretty stylish. Diesel's acting is not too bad either...well, as good as you'd expect from him anyway! The soundtrack from Wu Tang Clan producer the RZA is also really good and fits in very well with the film's atmosphere.

Overall this isn't even good enough to be watched as a brainless action flick, so I'd personally avoid this. If you're after a decent futuristic action film, I'd check out something like Jumper, Max Payne or Death Race instead.

Critically mauled but not all bad.
Babylon AD could have been a good movie, Vin Diesel is fine as the lead the plot is suitably sci fi hookum and the direction is generally very good. So why was it mauled by viewers and critics alike? well I assume some just dislike Vin Diesel but the justifyable stuff comes down to the plot being near incoherrent towards the end. Great big plot threads are ignored, parts just don't make sense at all. I think this is down to disputes between the director and the studio over running time. Even the director slated the finished film.
As a whole it os passable but watching it you can see there is a decent film in it somewhere, perhaps a directors cut with an extra hour of running time.

what is everyones problem
i do not see why this film got such bad reviews people complained the story made little sense but while watching the theatrical version (single disc edition) i understood everything that was happening the acting is also good despite the negative reviews that said another bad performance by vin diesel if you didnt like his acting then dont watch his films the effects and backgrounds are also really good especially the beginning while in war torn europe the only downside is how much has been edited and cut out i recommend paying the little bit extra for the 2 disc extended version if you like vin diesel and sci fi action flicks this film is a good watch just dont expect it to be in the same league as pitch black or chronicles of riddick