- This movie made me ill due to camera shake. God I hate this technique and wish it a really quick death.
- Stupid decisions abound on the part of nearly every character in this movie, but the one that really takes the cake is the Mexican nanny’s choice to take her two charges — prime little Aryan examples of what the world might have looked like had Hitler won WWII — across the border to her son’s wedding in Mexico because she can’t find a sitter while the kids’ mother is dying in Morocco. BZUH? This decision becomes even more ridiculous when you find out that she immigrated to the US illegally sixteen years prior. I understand the desire to attend your son’s wedding, but if you’ve been put into extenuating circumstances where your charges’ parents are dying half way around the world and you can’t find anyone else to take them, would you risk deportation just to attend your son’s wedding? Feh.
- The nanny’s nephew wins the Idiot of the Year prize for provoking testy border guards. I mean really, if there’s a border in the world where I would not want to piss off the people guarding it, it would be the US/Mexico border.
- On the list of Unnecessary Things I Never Need To See Caught On Film Again is twelve year-olds masturbating on Moroccan hillsides. The Grand Masturbator is also the one responsible for spying on his sister as she changes, shooting Cate Blanchett and possibly infecting her with gangrene caused by internal bleeding, and getting his older brother killed in a police shoot out. This kid is a WINNER.
- I feel reassured that no matter where I can go in the world, I can always get Coke.
- The one part I thought was really, really good was the bit where the village doctor began to prepare to stitch Cate Blanchett’s bullet wound shut. Earlier in the movie she had that increasingly typical North American fear of germs and was rather anal about hand sanitizers and potentially infected ice cubes, etc. so when the doctor was sterilizing this gigantic ass needle on an open flame (HYGIENIC!), her absolutely terrified reaction was really, really great.
- Brad Pitt was pretty good in this. He’s actually pretty good in most stuff, but his looks get in the way. Did they make him look older in this film (his face, not just his hair) or have they just been going to great lengths to make him look younger in his other films?
- They could have cut out the entire Japanese hunter subplot, seriously. (Even though it was actually my favourite subplot.) I nearly threw up during that one club scene. You know how when you go to a play they warn you if strobe lights are going to be used in case you’re prone to having seizures? Yeah, this movie needs to come with a warning like that.
Babel
I’m really not seeing the Oscar buzz in this one.
IMDB Plot Synopsis Tragedy strikes a married couple on vacation in the Moroccan desert, touching off an interlocking story involving four different families.