well, i dunno exactly, i'm bad with time, but it really didnt seem like he had much to do during his story, so it sure felt short.

and its an icky ten minutes to boot.

Why was this unstickied? It has only been semiwide for a week...

Anyway, a phenomenal film. Absolutely, without a doubt, one of the year's best. Yup, I'm definitely going against the grain here. I am disappointed by Bernal's role her (I wouldn't even call it that), but damn, this had quite a bit going for it. It was what Crash should have been. More later.

Holy shit. Mav, the subtitles bothered you? Um. What, then, did you expect? The title and trailer were big enough clues that this movie wasn't going to be about English or even in English.

A-.

(Japan - A+, Morocco - B, Mexico, B/B-)

...i honestly dont know what to say about this movie.... its that bad...and boring..and uninteresting

D

I feel Bradelyesque.

Proud lover of Babel.

Um...

Is there something I missed? Why is everyone praising the scenes in Japan with the deaf girl? I thought that was easily the worst parts of the film and dragged like there's no tomorrow. Not to mention that it had the weakest link to the overall story. Not like the rest of the film was better, though. One of the more challenging films to sit through, and not because it's difficult to watch. The film is flat dull, it ends on a weird note, the Japan story is awful, the Mexico story could have had more to it, and the acting, outside of Pitt, is just meh. Disappointed.

C-

(Morocco - B, Mexico - C+/C, Japan - F)

The story in Japan was easily the most heartfelt and poignant, imo, by showing her perspective of being deaf in the vibrant Japanese culture, coupled with her rather sad need for constant affection.

I agree, Libs. I thought the Tokyo-set story was the most affecting for the reason you posted.

I loved the entire film, though. It's a fascinating and moving accomplishment. Rinko Kikuchi and Brad Pitt are Oscar-worthy to the core. It's not quite as stellar as Syriana, but is very close. I'd give it an A+.

BABEL was a brilliant film. I absolutely loved it and found it to be much more involving than I had expected. Each one of the storylines was fascinating to watch and every actor was at the top of their game. Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Rinko Kikuchi are all absolutely brilliant and deserve recognition for their performances. One of the year's best films.

9/10 (A)

Thought it's going to be another 'Crash'..

Fortunately, it wasn't..

****1/2 out of ***** (A) , best movie of the year (so far..)

(Japan = A+, Morocco = A-, Mexico = C+)

can any of you last 3 posters explain the Japanese storyline? The thing that sucks about this film for me is that (unlike the Fountain), I can't understand it beyond the obvious.

This is about the most retarded film of the year. What a joke. Here is teh plot. American tourist gets shot. American kids go to a Mexican wedding with illegal immigrant aunt. They get left in the desert. Japanese horny deaf girl grieving over the loss of her mother tries to fuck everybody.

The end.

4/10

Innaritu is undoubtedly the weak link in the Mexico triplet. I always thought 21 Grams was massively overrated, and now Babel. It's disheartening to see this get all the critics and Golden Globes love while Children Of Men goes on being ignored.

This film is about as flawed as can be. This is a three hour film that could have been 90 minutes. The Mexican Wedding could have been cut down to about 10 minutes, honestly. Did we really need all the drinking and celebrations? Did we need to see Emelia sucking face with that dude? Did we need to see the chicken getting his head cut off? None of this furthered the plot. As for the Japanese story; weak. It didn't fit in the movie. It's like they were desperate to tie those characters into the story and gave them an excuse to show a pretty young Japanese girl naked half the time. That was embarrasing. And the twist...the shock? What shock? The whole film is an inspiration to me, and I'm not kidding either. It just goes to who you that you can write a shit film, make a shit film and still get recognized for it. I think this film is an embarassment and it if wins anything, I'll puke, seriously. I'll make myself puke. Pitt was great? Yea, in one scene he cries. That is Oscar worthy? Give me a break. What a bad film!!

More plot pieces:

Mexican wedding with drinking and chickens losing their heads.
Deaf, mute, horny, angry pretty 15 year old Japanese girls takes off panties and does ecstacy and drinks and tries to bang, the dentist, the boy, the cop and then maybe her father.
American tourist gets shot by masturbating 12 year old who wants to fuck his sister.
Moroccan police shoot first and ask questions later.
Drunk nephew decides best thing to do to cross American border is drink 4 cases of Corona before hand. Then run border patrol and drop aunt and kids off in desert.
American tourist pees pants twice, then makes out with husband as she reeks of piss and is dying of blood loss.
Grieving American husband cries at hospital, gets Golden Globe nomination.
Mexican aunt who takes care of kids gets deported for taking care of kids.
Lots of 15 year old boobies and lots of bush.

This film is a joke.

Still dieing to see this.

Still one of the year's best.

I do wish Cuaron was getting more attention, but that doesn't mean Innaritu doesn't deserve praise.

Next to Little Man, the worst film of the year.

Still thinking about it hours after. Brilliant film and a possible new #1 of the year - ahead of Volver and all the others, but I need to sleep on this...


It's certainly the most devastating experience of 2006 for me emotionally. I understand the "boredom" of some people, but it was all necessary imo - the wedding, the peeing... even the voleyball scene with Chieko I found extremely crucial. Rinko Kikuchi needs to get nominated, period. Along with Pitt and Barraza.


The nightclub sequence is just as good as I imagined. As for the scene between Pitt, Blanchett and the peeing bowl, I don't see the big deal. People just needed to make fun of a scene to mock the whole movie, I know, ala Sandra Bullock's fall from the stairs in Crash, but still... it's being talked about for all the wrong reasons. Not cool.

A



Neo, what do you need to understand about the Japanese storyline? I don't get it.

Haha, but it was fun watching Sandra Bullock fall. Oh, that movie. If you need something to make fun of....

Spot on review, android.

Welcome to the club. The nightclub scene is, indeed, one of the best of the year.

I'm so pissed that nowhere near me is playing this anymore. I think a few places did have it, but I didn't have a chance to go see it. Hopefully it gets a re-release come Oscar time or I may have to wait for DVD.

As the old saying goes, if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. So I'll shut up now. I think everyone knows how i feel about this charlatan.

oh, baumer...


and you loved Crash, so these plot issues shouldn't be so hard to swallow for you... I guess it just pissed you off. It happens.

We're the coolest!


And our club is not as unpopular as it appears to be here