And don't forget the 10 year old boy masturbating to the thought of his sist er. And a big hairy bush on a 16 year old. Or how about the fat drunk Mexican woman making out with the fat drunk Mexican man. That truly furthered the story.

nobody in their right mind is stupid enough to take two american kids out of their own country without permission and with more reason if you look more mexican than a damn Chimichanga. Everybody knows that.

Die Babel, DIE!

and a horrible one. Those kind of weddings dont exist anymore. Stupid movies always showing the horrible stuff about Mexico

Not on wedding!!

Ridiculous thread. Babel's an incredible film, better than every other major contender, including The Departed, Dreamgirls, Little Miss Sunshine, and United 93. Each performance is nuanced and unique, the cinematography is stunning (example: the last shot), and the storyline is moving and surprising. It's an incredible achievement and is entirely deserving of a Best Picture nomination.

Cate gracefully relieves herself.

Bullock's slip and fall was amateur.

'Nuff said.

And about the masturbation scene.... meh. I do have mixed feelings on it. I can look past it... I'm not sure it was necessary and probably serves just to make the characters more interesting. I prefer to break the film down into three parts and examine each one.... some are better than others. The acting (sans Gael, who should not have broken my heart and cameoed) is mostly superb though, and the film can be so beautiful. I'm sticking to what I've been saying: A flawed masterpiece.

Little do you know...

At least I don't masturbate and pee, right?

This statement seriously makes me want to puke. Usually I cna respect other people's opinions and then shrug it off. But this film is pointless, ugly, uninspiring, defies logic and tries to link the stories together in such a lilliputan way that it is embarrassing. To have this up for any award, let alone best acting or picture just proves to me that the majority of the academy doesn't see the movies they nominate. They can't, or else they would know that this is a charlatan, a sheep in wolves clothing. There is nothing logical, entertaining or realistic about this film. I can't tell you how much I loathe this film.

21 Grams was a piece of shit as well.

I agree.

Babel wasn't the worst film of the year, but of the top 7 or so films in the running, it is certainly the weakest of the bunch, in terms of quality, as far as my opinion goes.

I've decided this will probably be my least favorite BP nominee ever, assuming it gets in. I hate this movie more than I hate Lost in Translation. I hate it more than U93, though that won't be nominated.

What a long, pretentious, over-dramatic and dumb as nails movie.

I'll agree with that. I've been leaning back and forth, wondering if the good outweighs the bad (thus far, I haven't been able to list more strong points, other than Rinko Kikuchi, who hopefully gets an acting nod at the Oscars). But I can wholeheartedly agree that this does not deserve a BP nom at all. At best, I'd give this a C+, and that may be generous to give such a grade to only one aspect of the film.

Wow, I can't believe the negativity this film's received here. I could understand if Little Miss Sunshine was the film being discussed, but not Babel! You're all insane!

I've been to Babel's Rotten Tomatoes page. All I learned... there are 48 critics in serious need of some Thorazine.

If the awards nominations being passed around are any indication, you're in the majority.

Every year there is a mediocre film that wins or is nominated for a lot of awards, Babel is one of them.

I can now join this thread and agree that Babel is not worthy of Best Picture. (Not nearly as bad as some here are saying, but still not close to greatness level.)

Why the heck did the Guilds have to choose Babel? If they wanted to reward one of the amigos for their breakthroughs/great direction/whatever, couldn't they have chosen Cuaron or Del Toro? Children of Men is a fantastic film and also could be labelled as the "important" film much as Babel has. If they want an important film to cling to, cling to Children of Men, a much superior film in it's execution and direction, and one which deals with "issues".

Although I suppose if Babel was not a contender, in all likely hood, Iwo Jima and Eastwood were next in line for PGA and DGA, so maybe this isn't so bad, because I am personally thrilled to see the exclusion of their god Eastwood who is being declared the "greatest living American filmmaker" by certain critics, yeesh.

Peace,
Mike.

I agree with this thread. I didn't hate Babel but of most of the big contenders, it's definitely the weakest (well, after Dreamgirls).

I actually find is quite baffling why it didn't click with audiences but somehow clicked with all these critics awards and the guilds. I would have though the opposite would happen, sort of like Crash (except I'm not comparing the movie itself to Crash).

Nevertheless, it's somehow climbed a mountain and is sitting pretty in the top 5. I don't think it deserves a nomination but my main fight is against Dreamgirls now.

I am against Little Miss Sunshine, which is, IMO, the only truly awful film in the running for Best Picture.

That's just crazy.

Little Miss Sunshine was an insufferable bore. A cloying product disguised (poorly) as an indie comedy. Acting was decent, but overrated (especially Alan Arkin, gah!). Everything else... ugh.

lol

Sorry. I just couldn't get into Dreamgirls AT ALL. There was barely ANY meat in the movie. Everything was glossed over and covered up in 500 punds of make-up and hair. And whatever actually story there was wasn't in the very least something we haven't seen already or something that hasn't been done better.

Chicago was alot of fluff too, yes. But Chicago's was much more slick and dazzling than Dreamgirls. Dramgirls came off as trying way too hard and there were OH SO MANY empty, static, and altogether boring characters.

Jennifer Hudson's performance
Eddie Murphy's performance
The production value.

That's about ALL the movie has going for it.