Babylon A.D. - 2008

Babylon, MNP Entreprise, Studio Canal

Directed by Mathieu Kassovitz

Cast:

• Toorup – Vin Diesel
• Sister Rebecca – Michelle Yeoh
• Aurora – Melanie Thierry
• Gorsky – Gerard Depardieu
• The High Priestess – Charlotte Rampling
• Finn – Mark Strong
• Dr. Newton – Joel Kirby

Story: Toorup, a free-lance mercenary living in Russia, is approached by an underworld boss (who travels in an armored personnel carrier with tanks and several squadrons of bodyguards) to deliver a package to New York. This is particularly important for Toorop because it will provide him with the opportunity to return to the United States. He is currently on the terrorist watch list and can not gain admission. The package turns out to be a young woman, Aurora, who has lived her entire life in the oldest, most isolated convent on the planet. She is accompanied by Sister Rebecca, her teacher, surrogate mother, and protector. As they travel, Toorup learns the girl possesses unusual powers. As they are moving forward through a throng of people to board a train, she suddenly begins screaming and running the opposite direction, just before a bomb explodes. Other incidents along the way begin to make Toorup suspicious of exactly who or what she is. When they reach New York, the truth is revealed.

Review: Vin Diesel returns to the action film genre in this interesting post war look at the world where governments are no longer in control. Vin is a mercenary for hire, ready to retire and call it quits, but unable to return to the US. Gerard Depardieu plays an interesting role as Gorsky, the stereotypical Russian mob boss whose only interest is the base things in life and what he can do to have them. Michelle Yeoh gives a formidable performance as Sister Rebecca, and I am certain she was chosen for her obvious skills as both actress and karate master. The film moves well, has the right amount of tension between the players, and never deviates from the plot, which in itself is basic. The scenery and graphics are good, but you can tell the director is not getting his way with the film. Apparently, there were a lot of disagreements between the director and the studio, and the infighting is obvious when you watch the film and listen to the dialog. Hat's off to Vin Diesel, who turned down the lead in “Hitman” to be in this film. Talk about bad choices, but how can you know? Rated PG-13, which in this case is so wrong for a movie of this type, the violence never rises above the level of a video game, so the kids are pretty safe, and the language, well, they've heard it before. Personally I would love to see this one remade in about 10 years with the director being in charge. Give it David Twohy, he'd know what to do with it. A good rental, not a collectible. /p>