trailer break: ‘Babylon A.D.’
Take a break from work: watch a movie trailer...
Or as I like to call it, Escape From the Fifth Element.
I’m being told that this one won’t screen for critics, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t screening for other people, like those who will interview cast and crew for promotional purposes. And some of those little birds are telling me that this must be seen to be believed, it’s that funny. (It’s not meant to be a comedy.) So I may have to check it out.
Babylon A.D. opens wide on August 29.
(Technorati tags: Babylon AD, trailer)
(more below the ad... scroll down...)
comments
posted by wilsonhl (Wed Aug 20 08, 5:20PM)
It was released Wednesday here in France, and it's already being shredded by reviewers nationwide. I will probably go check this one out tomorrow, mostly because unlike many French big budget action pictures, it wasn't produced or written, or had anything to do with asshole extraordinaire Luc Besson.
posted by MaryAnn (Wed Aug 20 08, 6:06PM)
I've been thinking, since I was in Paris in the spring, that I'd like to do a bit of analysis on a regular basis about how pop culture is playing around the planet. I think it's about time to get moving on this...
How a studio can think it can release a movie in one nation or region and NOT have word get around is a mystery to me. Do they not grasp the concept of the *World Wide* Web?
posted by Mimi (Wed Aug 20 08, 9:40PM)
What is that music towards the end? I feel like I hear it ALL the time. It must be filed under "tension" in the Movie Trailer Making Database...
posted by Clayj (Wed Aug 20 08, 10:20PM)
The entire suite of music from this trailer is by Clint Mansell and Kronos Quartet, from the Requiem for a Dream soundtrack. It's either Hope Overture (track 13) or Lux Aeterna (track 32) or some remix/combination of them.
posted by chaot (Thu Aug 21 08, 6:16AM)
Leeloo Dallas multipass!
This one looks like it takes itself too seriously. You never know though, maybe there will be a surprise ending and he WONT fall in love with the girl :O
posted by JoshDM (Thu Aug 21 08, 10:22AM)
10 DEE-doo.
20 Doo-doo DEE-doo.
30 Doo-doo DEE-doo.
40 Doo-doo DEE-doo doo-doo doo-doo doo-doo.
50 GOTO 10
Man that Vin Diesel narration is PRE-TEN-TIOUS.
posted by Clayj (Thu Aug 21 08, 11:11AM)
Josh, that conversion of Lux Aeterna into code is hilarious. You're right that it follows a pattern.
I listen to a lot of movie soundtracks. It's really the only way to hear modern orchestral music composed in the classical style.
If Beethoven were alive today, he'd be clawing at the lid of his coffin and screaming.
posted by wilsonhl (Thu Aug 21 08, 5:26PM)
Just saw it, and... it's pretty darn dumb. Think Children Of Men with overbearing soundtrack, dizzying editing, and the same use of screens and pop-culture references as Southland Tales. And in fact I like Tales a whole lot more than this one. It's inconsistent in just about everything : directing, editing, writing, acting, Gérard Depardieu's accent (he's Russian by way of Montmartre). But the worst thing in this is Charlotte Rampling's part. She's not well introduced, her role is a quite badly written attempt at satire. And Rampling herself (usually a fascinating actress) goes wildly over-the-top.
It's kind of a disaster.
posted by Clayj (Thu Aug 21 08, 6:17PM)
My favorite bad part from the trailer: "From director Mathieu Kassovitz". He has acted in 32 movies to date, and directed 10 (bet you can't name any of them without looking at IMDb!). So by my logic, he's an actor, not a director.
To add insult to injury, he actually was in The Fifth Element: He's the guy with the picture on his head and the scary looking gun (which he doesn't know how to operate) who unsuccessfully tries to mug Bruce Willis.