Comments | nomirena: Babel (pronounced Babble)

nomirena

Babel (pronounced Babble)

Feb 27, 2007 12:50

So, a couple of months ago, Lee Cheri posted a review of Babel saying it was horrible and that she hated it. I had been on the verge of seeing it but decided not to because I totally trusted her judgment. Then, I began to hear very good reviews of it. So, this past weekend I watched it (in anticipation of the Oscars) and loved it. It's in a similar ( Read more... )

Comments 20

suzybuzz February 27 2007, 18:02:23 UTC

i have heard such horrible things about Babel as well. so it's worth watching? my grandmother called it porn.

nomirena February 27 2007, 18:14:13 UTC

Porn? I mean, there's one story line that has some overtly sexual content, but I wouldn't call it porn. I thought it was really well done and the acting was very good. But you know, it's all subjective...

thewicked3000 February 27 2007, 18:25:30 UTC

I would have liked a whole movie on the japanese girl's story. The other two turned me off for the same reasons Crash did.

nomirena February 27 2007, 18:29:53 UTC

interesting. Yah, the Japanese girl's story was fascinating. She should've gotten best supporting actress for it. I didn't have a problem with the other two stories. Maybe I just found the characters much more likable in this move than in Crash.

thewicked3000 February 27 2007, 18:41:50 UTC

definitely more likeable, but I found the message as heavy-handed. I think it gets into what my (high) expectations were going in to it vs what it actually delivered.

Crap, I mean Crash piscesboy311 February 27 2007, 18:39:50 UTC

Yeah Crash was the worst movie ever-it should have earned the Razzie not the Oscar. I really hated that whole played out message of "Can't we all just get along?" The casting was terrible and the script too contrived, too.

I haven't seen 'Babel' yet but now I will just so I can see why it is worthy of a best picture nomination.

sticky_as_rice February 27 2007, 19:08:37 UTC

I really hated Babel and felt that it should've been replaced with Children of Men or at least The Prestige for the Oscars. That movie did nothing but agitate me about each character, and I felt like nothing really happened in that movie and you were just waiting for it and then came nothing...

nomirena February 27 2007, 19:45:17 UTC

aha. perhaps that is the message. we're doomed to always be at odds with one another.
It's interesting how divided people are on this.
I still need to see The Prestige and don't want to see Children of Men because it looks so violent.

sticky_as_rice February 27 2007, 19:52:19 UTC

Not always, but it does spice things up ;).

Well I would've been disappointed if it won Best Picture; just like how Crash won last year...
But Babel felt so empty to me, like there was nothing there and I couldn't connect to any of the characters or even feel bad or sorry for any of them, even though some were the victims of stupid decisions made by stupid characters.

Oh you must see those two, they are amazing pieces of work. Children of Men isn't super violent, there were only a couple of scenes that were pretty violent, but overall it was so well done it made you feel like you were part of the world that was being shown. It's by far one of my most favorite films i've seen recently.

nomirena February 27 2007, 19:54:38 UTC

we, on a global level, will always be at odds. The people of the world.

I will get around to see Children of Men, I assume. It looks SO dreary, not that that is usually a deterrant, but I mean, very very taupe.

Thread 8

lee_cheri February 27 2007, 19:43:44 UTC

Yeah, I disliked Babel for the same reasons that I loathed Crash. Granted, Babel wasn't quite as heavy-handed or poorly-acted, it was much more refined and polished, but it was still disappointing and over-the-top.
I hated that the 2 messages that they shoved down your throat were:

1) Don't give guns to children (earth-shattering)
and
2) Don't let illegal immigrants care for your children (horribly racist)

And really, I don't think it was entirely plausible either. Perhaps the Japanese story was, but even still - that was the one that had the thinnest connection to the other 2 stories, which were a bit much for me. Melodrama. Everyone making terrible, terrible, terrible decisions. The Wrath of God upon the little boy in the end. Ugh. Just....ugh.

And yeah, Children of Men was robbed of the attention that went to Babel, I think.

nomirena February 27 2007, 19:51:42 UTC

I actually didn't think those were the two messages. I thought the overriding idea was that we will never have a universal language with which to effectively communicate. There is no way that different cultures can understand one another because we have so many preconceived notions/fear about one another that get in the way. And the Japanese girl basically embodied that, literally having no spoken language at her disposal, entirely confined to silence and neverending frustration (the mexican nanny was in the identical position at the end of the movie and she actually had language but couldn't use it to get her anywhere).

sticky_as_rice February 27 2007, 19:53:44 UTC

See we can agree on some things, but good observation.

(I was being cheeky) lee_cheri February 27 2007, 20:35:44 UTC

No, of course - you're right. The film was largely about miscommunication in this age of globalization...and though it was somewhat effective (again, the subplot of the Japanese girl) to that aim, I *really* didn't care for the other two stories and felt that they were overly melodramatic and over-the-top and lacking some much-needed subtlety.

Thread 6