May 22, 2007

Babel - $9

Babel is a movie about tragedy, human despair and the types of actions and decisions that people are forced to make during these times.


The characters are diverse and are all going through very different types of situations and yet as the story unfolds we see that Babel using a classic movie tool in drawing the viewer in; all the characters are connected in some way.

Babel was very good, it gripped me and had me involved in the story. I was concerned for those who were going through difficulties and found myself wishing some of them would make better choices. This kind of conscious involvement is always a good sign to me that I am being impacted by a movie.

The acting performances in Babel are superb. Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett are the biggest stars here but are only two of many strong performances I enjoyed in this film.

My favorite part of Babel however was the directing. The imagery and cinematography were fabulous. There a few different settings and each is shot beautifully and really captured in a detailed and yet broad sense at the same time.

Babel is one of the best movies of 2006. I put it on my 'Watch It' list and give it a value of $9.

11 comments:

Sheamus the... said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sheamus the... said...

I loved some aspects of this movie. I loved Pitt and Cate's relationship, I loved the two little boys, I loved the Asian girls night club experience, I loved the camera work, and I loved the editing. Great movie. I am just getting tired of this kinda story telling.

...sorry i had to write the one above(deleted) real fast and there were a lot of typos.

Tony Tanti said...

No worries on the delete, I've done that plenty of times and it's better than leaving the typos.

I hear what you're saying and I've heard others make the same comment about the genre but I agree that though the genre may be overdone lately Babel is still a great movie.

Sheamus the... said...

agree...Babel is a great movie.

Jon Coutts said...

it is basically a way of doing a movie, and like the linear story way, is either done good or bad. this one was great. i think it is overdone once disney starts doing it.

what i want to see is a movie done like that one seinfeld episode: backwards. that would be amazing.

Tony Tanti said...

That movie exists Jon, it's called Memento and it's awesome.

Sheamus the... said...

Memento is in my top 10...Guy Peirce is amazing.

Fear said...

haven't seen it. i'll get on it soon. for some reason we rented the motorcycle diaries though so i need to watch that first.

Anonymous said...

I agree, I also thought this movie was great. Yes, this style of movie making is done often, but as long as it's done to serve the purpose of the movie then I'm okay with it. It was very effective in this movie.

On another note, I finally saw Pan's Labyrinth last night. It was pretty great. The story was a little hard to get into at times but by the end I was quite moved by it.

Also, Dave I noticed your $9 rating of My Life is a Dog. Too bad this didn't warrant a full review cause I'd like to hear what you thought of it.

Tony Tanti said...

jeff, I may do a full review of My Life as a Dog yet. I watched it the night before watching Babel and wanting to leave Babel up for a few days at least.

My Life as a Dog was great! Very funny and moving. I loved a lot of the characters and the complexity of the relationships.

* (asterisk) said...

I'll watch this, but I don't hold up much hope. It's been pretty much slammed by UK critics.

Re that Seinfeld episode. That was based on the play Betrayal, by Harold Pinter, so why not go straight to the source and watch a film version of that. This one has a good cast.