Babylon A.D. (Two-Disc Special Edition) and 12 similar items

Confusing and chaotic, Babylon A.D. was said by its director, Mathieu Kassovitz, to have been heavily cut in order to obtain a PG-13 rating. Whether or not that explains why the film feels so thin on story details and heavy on obligatory explosions, is hard to say. What is clear is that the film is mildly enjoyable if one just focuses on the non-stop action. Vin Diesel plays Toorop, a futuristic mercenary living in Eastern Europe and eating unappetizing critters. A gangster named Gorsky (Gerard Depardieu) engages him to transport a girl, Aurora (the spooky-looking Melanie Thierry), and her chaperone, a nun named Sister Rebeka (Michelle Yeoh), from Russia to New York, taking a route over the top of the world. With no idea what's so special about Aurora, Toorop soon encounters some inexplicable facts. First, Aurora has a wild passion for helpless people, including the poor, refugees, etc.--so wild, she has to be contained at times. She also has a strange genius for understanding such things as handling the controls of an old submarine, which she has never been done before. Over the North Pole and down into America, Toorop is drawn into a battle for possession of Aurora fought in Manhattan's streets. The combatants, it turns out, are more or less Aurora's parents, who have very different reasons for wanting something special she's carrying within her. The complicated story is never truly clear, making it hard to sympathize with a downbeat ending or enjoying a sophisticated support cast including Yeoh, Charlotte Rampling, Depardieu and Lambert Wilson. Diesel is his usual laconic and enjoyable self, and his performance as a hit man who settles somewhat into a makeshift family with Rebeka and Aurora is as touching as his fighting skills are still impressive. --Tom Keogh