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Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 8:26 pm
by Penelope
This is just too rich:
Moviegoers warned of "Babel" sickness
TOKYO (AP) - The Japanese distributor of "Babel" is warning audiences the movie may cause nausea or headaches.
Gaga Communications has received 15 complaints since the film, starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, opened Saturday in theaters throughout the country, company spokeswoman Aimi Ichikawa said Wednesday.
Ichikawa said the company was investigating which scenes caused the illnesses, and hasn't ordered theaters to adjust sound or lighting.
The problem of nausea or headaches has only been reported in Japan, she said.
Some 300 theaters nationwide posted a note Tuesday saying "Babel" contains scenes with strong effects and that some viewers felt sick after seeing them, according to a company news release.
Gaga Communications also ran ads with a warning in major newspapers Wednesday.
"Babel," directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, depicts a saga of families on three continents linked by tragic events in the African desert.
The film was highly anticipated in Japan after Rinko Kikuchi received an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress. Kikuchi, 26, played a deaf and frustrated Tokyo schoolgirl.
"Babel," released by Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Vantage, received seven Oscar nominations. It won the Oscar for best original score.
Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 6:39 pm
by Akash
You know that's why I did it Big Magilla :p
Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 6:27 pm
by Big Magilla
I was going to edit my post to fix Gael's name, but since I have already been quoted with his name mixed up, I'll have to leave it for posterity. :O
Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 6:05 pm
by Akash
Big Magilla wrote:Nor does Gael Bernal Garcia as her hot-tempered spineless nephew.
And if Gael Garcia Bernal's beauty can't make a film even marginally worth watching, then you know the film is dung.
Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 6:01 pm
by Big Magilla
MovieWes wrote:Finally saw it last night. Wow, I wasn't expecting much, but I wasn't expecting this train wreck. Officially my #1 worst movie of 2006. The movie is so bad, I can barely even stomach a Best Picture nomination, much less the notion that it could actually win the thing. Far worse than Crash could ever be.
I watched this on DVD thinking maybe it would improve on the small screen, but instead found it much worse.
The worst stereotypes of Arabs, Americans, Mexicans and Japanese are portrayed, the Mexancs suffering the most.
Not only does Andriana Barraza's character make stupid choices, she delivers half her dialogue in Spanish even when speaking to the kids, most of the rest of it in hard to understand broken English, which might have made sense if this character was supposed to have just entered the country or spent her time in it toiling with her fellow illegals in artichoke patches, but for someone who has lived in San Diego for 15 years, working for supposedly well-to-do articulate people, makes absolutely none. Nor does Gael Bernal Garcia as her hot-tempered spineless nephew. For whom was Gonzales Innaikrtu making this movie aside from the gullible who see something profound in it that just isn't there?
Edited By Big Magilla on 1172444581
Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 5:55 pm
by Akash
Damien wrote:LMAO!!!
Still, it's not quite as bad as Little Miss Dungheap.
I dunno, I still say choosing between Babel and LMS is like choosing between...oh never mind.
In a few hours, the Oscars are gonna crown one of these dung films Best Picture and we can just rag on it then.
Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 3:17 pm
by Damien
MovieWes wrote:1. Arab people are dangerous and are liars (except when they have a gun pointed at them).
2. Mexican people are stupid drunks lacking even basic common sense (and the director is Mexican?!).
3. Americans are arrogant, condescending, and self-centered.
4. Japanese people are crazy and irresponsible.
5. Deaf mutes are angry and horny.
LMAO!!!
Still, it's not quite as bad as Little Miss Dungheap.
Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 2:32 pm
by MovieWes
Finally saw it last night. Wow, I wasn't expecting much, but I wasn't expecting this train wreck. Officially my #1 worst movie of 2006. The movie is so bad, I can barely even stomach a Best Picture nomination, much less the notion that it could actually win the thing. Far worse than Crash could ever be.
The thing that gets me is that people are calling it a movie with a message. A message? What message? Here are the messages that I pulled from this xenophobic piece of crap.
1. Arab people are dangerous and are liars (except when they have a gun pointed at them).
2. Mexican people are stupid drunks lacking even basic common sense (and the director is Mexican?!).
3. Americans are arrogant, condescending, and self-centered.
4. Japanese people are crazy and irresponsible.
5. Deaf mutes are angry and horny.
Awful!
Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 6:27 pm
by Sonic Youth
I can't take a break once in a while?
Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 4:07 pm
by Sabin
Who are you?
Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 1:25 am
by Sonic Youth
Ladies and Gents, it's Babel, the Musical! In Gonzales Inarritu's newest anthology film, the tales are continuously interrupted by musical numbers - pop songs, mood pieces, atmospheric reveries, whatever - and the film gets caught up in never-ending montages that insistantly establish a sense of place rather than advance the narrative one jot. No matter whether we're in Morocco, Japan or Mexico, G.I.finds a way to shoot a particular area and its inhabitants 27 different ways with some piece of music in the background before continuing on with the story. This stop-start-stop-start pacing is supremely irritating over the course of the film. And although I'm grateful that G.I. has toned down his worst stylistic excesses of 21 Grams and filmed more straightforwardly, he appears to believe these music videos are an adaquate substitute. They're not. They're distracting time-wasters that add nothing but unneccesary run-time.
I could be mean and speculate that in its quest for examining our interconnectiveness and universality, the film cynically does so by exploting current fads now celebrated by contemporary arthouse filmgoers: outdoorsy Middle-Eastern films and urban Far East Asian films. Babel nicely kills several birds here by giving us, among other things, exotic Mideast and Far East Asian cinema for the audience to gawk at and for AMPAS to acknowledge. And I guarantee that if this were made 40 years ago, French and Italian segments would be in their place.
Cynicism aside, the question I asked a few weeks ago was if this film is as bad as 21 Grams. And the fact is, I prefer this film. When G.I. plays it straightforwardly, he just isn't a very interesting filmmaker. It's as if musical/visual melanges and exotic settings - open Moroccan pastures, modernist Japanese skyscrapers - are enough to establish a visual style, although it has its moments. (The first cut between segments - from the Moroccan children running away after firing the gun to the child in San Diego running in the kitchen -is so nimble it stopped me short.) Still, I'll take the somewhat anonymous proficiency over 21 Grams virtuostic hysteria any day. There are danger signs that this is going to descend into another excessively schematic wallow, hammering everything into our noggins to make sure we don't miss the point - the condensing of all the plot points and characterizations of the Moroccan episode within the first five minutes; an interminable sequence with Brad Pitt trying to hold Cate Blanchett's hand on the bus, with sad musical accompaniment of course. And yet, I found the first hour rather compelling as the individual stories get set up for the final crescendos. It reminded me of Amores Perros, a film I liked for its energy and kineticism and disliked for its tapering off - nice set-ups, no pay-offs. But no, Babel is not another Amores Perros, or another 21 Grams, or Traffic or "Crash, only international." It reminded me more of "13 Conversations About One Thing", another movie that plays with ideas of coincidences and inter-connectedness, and also jumbles up the time sequences of each episode, obstensibly to emphasize mankind's collectiveness, but in reality to assure each sequence builds up and climaxes at the same damn time for that ultimate dramtic impact. In Babel, all the sequences build and climax together as if time bombs were synchronized in three parts of the world, rather than allow any one story to make its own impression. The effect is not devastating, just exhausting.
Let's face it. Gonzales Inarritu is just a showman, a carny selling us human misery with the volume set to 11. Barraza at first appears to be the film's salvation, exuding a warmth and openess so lacking in any other film he's made. But even she is eventually reduced to frenzied delirium as God, er... I mean, Gonzales Inarritu doles out his harsh punishments upon the world. And only the Tokyo segment is strong, intriguing and complex enough - though no less overwrought - to sustain a film of its own (with Kikuchi my supporting actress of choice). But Babel offers something the previous two films didn't, and that's the possibility that something other than great distress exists in the world. For once, there is intimacy and human contact in small gestures... a glance of concern, a kiss on the forehead, an embrace, a touch of compassion in the voice, at least one person by your side rather than the entire planet against you. Finally, G.I. is entertaining the proposal that there is a recognizable alternative to all this affected anguish. Which *gasp!* leaves me wondering what G.I. has in mind for his next film, and can he mature any further. And that's a big advance from my promising never to see another one of his films after his previous one.
Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 10:19 pm
by Hustler
flipp525 wrote:this would certainly be the first time both performances are non-English and possibly the most performances in a foreign language this category has ever seen.
and if it happens, it will be so challenging!
Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 10:16 pm
by Hustler
Penelope wrote:I say this with all due respect: I'm appalled that any rational thinking person could take this overwraught, ridiculous, sadistic, mysogonistic tripe seriously. My usual Saturday night gang hated this flick even more than Running with Scissors, and that's saying quite a bit--it was an absolute chore to sit through.
mysogonistic? I can´t really see that.
Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 12:16 pm
by flipp525
There are no unsullied Prediction threads anymore!!
With regard to the possibility of both Babel women (Adriana Barazza and Rinko Kikuchi) getting nominated, when was the last time that there were double unknown nominees from the same film in the Best Supporting Actress race? I was thinking Imitation of Life, however, this would certainly be the first time both performances are non-English and possibly the most performances in a foreign language this category has ever seen.
Edited By flipp525 on 1167671805
Posted: Fri Nov 17, 2006 7:28 am
by Big Magilla
I don't know. I wanted to like this movie, I really did. While I didn't hate it, the story reference I kept thinking of was The Emperor Has No Clothes.
I like Gonzalez Irriartu's unique style of film-making. It's urgent, in your face and compelling, and yet after Amores Perros and 21 Grams I'm on to him. Maybe it's because I read enough about the film to know how the stories were inter-connected, but this time around I found the time shifts rather precious and gimmicky. For example, Brad and Cate sitting in a cafe after you know she's the woman injured on the bus just had me thinking "let's get on with it."
Like Paul Haggis' Crash, last year's Oscar winner that mimics Gonzalez Irraritu's style, this is a message film that wears its heart on its sleeve. What it is about is apparent from the title itself so while there is suspense to the invidual stories, the whole does not equal the sum of its parts.
I do agree that among the actors, Barraza and Kikuchi do exceptional work worthy of Oscar consideration. While Brad Pitt is good, he reminded me more of Matt Damon than George Clooney in Syriana. He's overshadowed.
Aside from the two women and cinmatography, its Oscar chances seem quite iffy despite the buzz. Editing, direction, screenplay, score, picture and Pitt are still huge question marks for me.