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Babel Review

Movies.com Critics

3.5

Dave White Profile

… way better than that stupid Crash Read full review

Other Critics provided by Metacritic.com

Critics scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 4.0
    69

    out of 100

    Metascore®
    Generally favorable reviews
    based on a weighted average of all
    critic review scores.

  • 40

    out of 100

    Wall Street Journal

    The ultimate poor judgment: the decision to put Babel before the camera. That defies comprehension in any language.

  • 67

    out of 100

    Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

    Measured in anything other than biblical cubits, the sum of Babel's many parts turns out to be a picture that suggests Americans ought to stay home and treat their nannies better.

    Read Full Review

  • 80

    out of 100

    Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

    The beauty of this film is in its lapidary details, which sparkle with feeling and surprise.

    Read Full Review

  • 80

    out of 100

    The New York Times A.O. Scott

    In the end Babel, like that tower in the book of Genesis, is a grand wreck, an incomplete monument to its own limitless ambition. But it is there, on the landscape, a startling and imposing reality. It's a folly, and also, perversely, a wonder.

    Read Full Review

  • 88

    out of 100

    USA Today Claudia Puig

    Babel may be the most ambitious movie of the year, tackling towering communication barriers, global politics and cultural divides in a structurally complex and fascinating narrative.

    Read Full Review

  • 90

    out of 100

    Variety Todd McCarthy

    Effectively building dread and emotional tension as tragic incidents triggered by human stupidity and carelessness steadily multiply, this film, like "21 Grams" in particular, employs a deterministically grim mindset in the cause of its philosophical aspirations, but is gripping nearly all the way.

    Read Full Review

  • 90

    out of 100

    The Hollywood Reporter Ray Bennett

    The filmmakers succeed brilliantly in weaving these stories together, taking time to explore depth of character and relationships. The suspense builds throughout as everyone involved becomes lost in a place they don't understand with people they don't know if they can trust.

    Read Full Review

  • See all Babel reviews at Metacritic.com

Fan Reviews provided by

5

Five Word Review by redyeah
Beautifully shot, intense, thrilling ride

5

?BABEL? -- A World of Misunderstandings cause much PAIN on the Planet Rating: 9 of 10 stars (based on viewing an HD-DVD copy of the film) = by jimchudnow
A married couple from San Diego, Richard & Susan Jones (BRAD PITT & CATE BLANCHETT) are on a vacation in a bus touring a desert countryside area of Morocco. They?ve left their two young kids with their lifelong Mexican nanny Amelia (ADRIANA BARRAZA). In the desert, a goat-owner buys a rifle for safety from a local guide (who got it as a gift from a Japanese hunter). He lets his two sons carry the rifle to keep jackals away from his herd. But, the sons are very competitive, &, in practice shooting, 1 thoughtlessly injures CATE as she rides in the bus. Naturally, things keep ?spiraling? ever more out of control with the various groups: a Japanese girl keeps having more and more emotional problems; Adriana takes Brad's kids to Mexico; & the Moroccan boys (considered "terrorists") try to hide what they?d done. . It?s an impressively-done story of how seemingly-?small? incidents can lead to MAJOR consequences in a ?domino? effect, with an interweaving of stories of at least 4 main groups.

3

A little over-hyped. by cjtolmie
But still a decent movie to rent. The concept is very good and well acted.

5

by Got Popcorn

4

Good. by joggernox
It was a good movie.

1

by Paul_Durango

2

by rama928

4

by jddow

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