Babylon A.D.
Headline: ** Confused, Chaotic Mess **
Title: BABYLON A.D.
Quality: * * Acceptability: -3
SUBTITLES: None
WARNING CODES:
Language: LL
Violence: VVV
Sex: S
Nudity: N
RATING: PG-13
RELEASE: August 29, 2008
TIME: 90 or 101 minutes
STARRING: Vin Diesel, Michelle Yeoh, Gerard Depardieu, Melanie Thierry, Charlotte Rampling, Lambert Wilson, and Mark Strong
DIRECTOR: Mathieu Kassovitz
PRODUCER: Ilan Goldman
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: None
WRITERS: Mathieu Kassovitz and Eric Besnard
BASED ON THE NOVEL "BABYLON BABIES" BY: Maurice Dantec
DISTRIBUTOR: 20th Century Fox
CONTENT: (PaPa, C, B, Ab, O, H, LL, VVV, S, N, A, D, M) Strong but unresolved and somewhat vague New Age pagan worldview that's rather syncretistic or mixed, plus some light, slightly positive references to Jesus Christ, Christianity and God, but also unresolved, with high priestess of some sort of new New Age/Christian sect with a secret convent in Mongolia and headquartered in New York City is a villain, some apparent occult powers and some pseudo-scientific humanist mumbo jumbo about computer artificial intelligence being linked with human genes that's also not clarified; 20 obscenities (including one "f" word) and two strong profanities; very strong action violence with some blood includes shooting in cold blood, cage fighting, explosions, powerful terrorist bomb explodes, gunfights with machine guns, missiles explode, dead polar bears with bloody wounds, stealth drone jets shoot at and fire missiles at people trying to cross Canadian border, vehicles crash during chase, and woman shot in chest with some blood; man in towel and young woman in slightly revealing T-shirt and panties almost kiss, a threat is made that contains a crude reference to prostitution, a "virgin birth" pregnancy is part of the plot; upper male nudity and woman in slightly revealing T-shirt and panties but nothing sexually explicit, skin wise; alcohol use; smoking; and, hero has tattoos.
GENRE: Science Fiction
INTENDED AUDIENCE: Teenagers and adults
Please address your comments to:
Rupert Murdoch, Chairman/CEO of News Corp.
Peter Chernin, President/COO of The Fox Group
Tom Rothman and Jim Gianopulos, Chairmen/CEO
Fox Filmed Entertainment
20th Century Fox Film Corp.
(Fox Searchlight Pictures and Fox Atomic)
10201 West Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90035
Phone: (310) 369-1000
Website: www.fox.com
SUMMARY: BABYLON A.D. stars Vin Diesel as a mercenary in the future who is hired to take a young woman with some kind of religious significance from Mongolia to New York City. This action movie contains some foul language, lots of strong action violence and a rather vague, unclear, mixed-up New Age worldview that's never resolved.
IN BRIEF:
BABYLON A.D. is a science fiction movie set a few decades from now. It stars Vin Diesel as Toorop, a mercenary down on his luck and living in a war-torn Eastern Europe. A former boss hires him to take a young woman named Aurora from a New Age/Christian convent in Mongolia to New York City. Accompanying them is a nun, named Rebeka, who became Aurora's adoptive mother when the orphan was left there. The trip is arduous and dangerous, with many action scenes. When they arrive in New York, it turns out that Aurora has miraculously conceived twins. She has become the object of a power struggle between the evil high priestess of Rebeka's sect and the international gang led by Toorop's Russian boss.
BABYLON A.D. never resolves what's really happening. Images of Jesus and the Cross appear, making it sometimes seem as if the nun's sect could be a Christian one and that the movie has a positive Christian worldview. These themes are never developed, however. In fact, the movie adopts a New Age, syncretistic worldview, but there's little or no clear theological content behind it.
NOTE from Dr. Ted Baehr, publisher of Movieguide Magazine. For more information from a Christian perspective, order the latest Movieguide Magazine by calling 1-800-899-6684(MOVI) or visit our website at www.movieguide.org. Movieguide is dedicated to redeeming the values of Hollywood by informing parents about today's movies and entertainment and by showing media executives and artists that family-friendly and even Christian-friendly movies do best at the box office year in and year out. Movieguide now offers an online subscription to its magazine version, atwww.movieguide.org. The magazine, which comes out 25 times a year, contains many informative articles and reviews that help parents train their children to be media-wise consumers.
