Damien Chazelle’s Babylon

[Kane52630]

There's also a bit of Hail Caesar in this.

 

[shauner111]

Oh please dont say that.

 

[Pennywise]

Margot Robbie & Brad Pitt ‘Babylon’ Now Going Wide On Dec. 23 – Deadline

 

[Kane52630]

Oh please dont say that.

 

[Asr]

New trailer released (and if Tobey Maguire ever wants to cross over to DC, I could totally see him as Joker now):

 

[Shinobi Shaw]

Everything Everywhere All At Once might be usurped as movie of the year now.

 

[Stringer]

Looks unfocused to me. We'll see.

 

[CaptainWagner]

I've been skeptical about this one. Definitely seeing it opening weekend, but I don't know... These sprawling Golden Age homages don't tend to do it for me. Didn't really love Hail, Caesar, Mank, or OUATIH...

 

[Doctor Jones]

They need to do The Fade Out. Would make a hell of a movie.

 

[DarkKnight88]

 

[Prison Mike]

I don’t think this will connect with the general audiences. I’m sure a lot of cinephiles will see this of course.

 

[GothamCity]

I dont like the trailer. The acting is too over the top, i dont like that most of the time. Thats why i hate Wolf of Wall Street, which this reminds me of.

 

[Kane52630]

Not too surprising Sean loved it.

 

[moviedoors]

I will say though, casting Samara Weaving and Margot Robbie as actors vying for the same role will get me in the theater.

 

[TheVileOne]

There's also a bit of Hail Caesar in this.

Eh not so much. Totally different era. Hail Caesar was also much more entertaining and coherent than this film. Caesar was in the 1950s. This is late-20s, early 30s in the pre-code era.

Babylon is meant to be more realistic and a lot of the characters are based more on real-life figures more so than Hail Caesar. Plus the movie had that whole wacky communist spy plot.

 

[TheVileOne]

Everything Everywhere All At Once might be usurped as movie of the year now.

Not even close.

 

[Drizzle]

I was considering seeing this in theaters next week but then I saw that it's 3 hours and 9 minutes.

Waiting for a VOD rental it is.

 

[Shinobi Shaw]

I was considering seeing this in theaters next week but then I saw that it's 3 hours and 9 minutes.

Waiting for a VOD rental it is.

I don't got the theater strength for 3 hours man. Unless it's for Marvel and a hero I'm actually invested in.

 

[Drizzle]

I don't got the theater strength for 3 hours man. Unless it's for Marvel and a hero I'm actually invested in.

I will admit that the 3 hour runtimes for Avatar 2 and The Batman flew by for me and for all I know it could be the same thing with Babylon but what am I, made of time?

 

[Kane52630]

I've seen a fair share of Bollywood movies growing up, so a 3hr movie means nothing to me.

 

[Drizzle]

I've seen a fair share of Bollywood movies growing up, so a 3hr movie means nothing to me.

It gets a little taxing on me in a theater the older I get but I usually don't mind a 3 hour movie. Unless that movie is Drive My Car, which I watched broken up in three sittings and I still thought it was too ****in' long.

 

[Sawyer]

What’s happening with non-franchise/genre film is unfortunate, but uhh… did the budget really need to be that high?

 

[TheVileOne]

Just a bloated, messy, conceited, self-obsessed movie.

A lot of movies I'm seeing lately by Oscar winning filmmakers just seem really bloated and messy. Like they lack focus and seem unsure what they are really about. Empire of Light had this problem too.

To me what the movie is about is the Hollywood dream and kind of how fragile and fleeting it all is. But then Chazelle drags in all this other bloat and nonsense and has this stupid montage at the end that doesn't at all fit.

The Sidney Palmer and Lady Fay Zhu characters in this movie were also badly written and underdeveloped. They were set up as secondary protagonists, but they basically disappear about midway through.

I found Margot Robbie's character completely unlikable. I didn't care about her connection with Manny's character because I didn't understand why Manny was so enamored with her.

Brad Pitt and Jean Smart had the only moments in the movie that I sort of connected with. Pitt as the aging film star who couldn't make the transition to the sound era. Jean Smart as the Hollywood journalist who understands the game.

FYI, the California Film Commission is listing the movie's budget as $110 million.

 

[Prison Mike]

Yeah I’ve been reading $110 million as the production budget. Not sure where Variety got the $80 million number.

 

[samsnee]

First Man bombed. So after this one does as well, I imagine he might have a harder time getting another budget this size.

This also shows Margot Robbie can’t open a film. I think Barbie will do well because it’s got buzz going for it, but none of her movies have done that well either.