Man, I don’t know. I like the period chosen to tell the story of these characters. There is certainly ample room to generate a multifaceted plot to encompass this critical period in Hollywood, while giving us palpable drama regarding the struggles they faced in the process. I feel like Chazelle went overboard in his efforts to paint a picture of the extravagance, depravity and unincumbered excess, that would eventually derail the lives of those who fell prey to the wiles of unbridled fame/wealth in Hollywood at that time.

of the raucous, 1920s Hollywood scene and maintain their relevance at a time when the industry is moving on to the next best thing. Babylon comes to Ultra HD Blu-ray from Paramount Home Entertainment featuring 2160pHEVC encoded video and lossless Dolby Atmos/TrueHD 7.1 channel sound. The last scenes with Toby Maguire were hard to believe, just like the party at the beginning, is that what happens to people with money, they get bored with things and go off the deep end ?? This year’s Oscar Broadcast missed a great opportunity — a fun montage of ‘great elephant moments’ in cinema history: Tarzan, Sabu in Elephant Boy, Dumbo and his animated mom, Elsa Martinelli taking a Baby Elephant Walk in Howard Hawks’ Hatari!, Claudine Longet painting an elephant in Blake Edwards’ The Party, and, and — Babylon’s pachyderm with its aggravated stomach complaint. particularly soaking in the opportunity to act with near limitless inhibition, whether she's acting within her part in a film-within-the-film ora more personal nature for the characters as they find themselves in trouble beyond their careers. These elements feel less than enthusiastic in Paramount Home Entertainment’s 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital of Babylon looks splendid — the home theater experience must be as good as top-level theatrical projection — better, if we count the fact that we won’t have to endure three hours without a bathroom break. After all the negative comments, it’s possible that a lot of home video fans will have the same curiosity about Babylon that I did. How many will bail after the Elephant scene? How many will declare it an unrecognized masterpiece? Babylon' follows an ambitious cast of characters -- The Silent Film Superstar (Brad Pitt), the Young Starlet (Margot Robbie), the Production After scoring his Best Director Oscar for La La Land, no one can fault Damien Chazelle for chasing some exciting projects. He’s adept at painting intricate character portraits on a large canvas and infusing his films with a magnetic energy you can’t look away from. From the gorgeously composed visuals to the exceptional sound design and music accompaniment, his films are unique enterprises for a filmmaker of his generation. It’s understandable how each film garners the attention of top-tier A-List talent. After Whiplash, La La Land, and First Man - who wouldn’t want to be a part of one of his films? Then comes Babylon.

Very off-the-wall things going on all the time to the point of extreme, but I guess that's what is was supposed to be. MPAA Rating: R for strong and crude sexual content, graphic nudity, bloody violence, drug use, and pervasive language.. the extremes of human behavior at the top fo the success chain. The opening celebration of debauchery underscores the rest of the film, including An extended sequence shows Nellie and an entire crew becoming exasperated trying to film a sync sound scene, with microphone problems, camera-in-a-booth problems, etc.. It’s an unimaginative replay of an equivalent scene in Singin’ in the Rain. Yet again Chazelle’s method is to push everything way Over the Top, with everyone screaming, an anti-Semitic tirade, etc. And the punch line is another corpse! We lose the scene’s most important point, that the technical chaos robs Nellie LeRoy of her extemporaneous acting brilliance. This UHD release of Babylon contains all of its extras on a second Blu-ray disc; the feature film discs (both Blu-ray and UHD) contain only theWe almost don’t know how to react Chazelle’s more ‘explosive’ anatomical gross-outs, or how to understand what he wants to achieve. The elephant sequence and the vomiting sequence are pretty intolerable. That first four minutes of elephant slime play like an Audience Test, as if Chazelle were daring people to walk out. Nellie’s projectile vomit on Hearst’s rug far outdoes that of Linda Blair. What fun! Hooray for Hollywood! * Overall, ‘Babylon’ is an intriguing look at one of the most outrageous times in Hollywood and showcases the final days of the silent film era and the beginning of talkies overtaking the industry that never shies away from the graphic, sex and drug-fueled insanity and debauchery that accompanied it. Those who are bothered by notably graphic sexual content and nudity that goes far beyond what we often see in theatrical films with plenty of drug use and some unsettling violence accompanying it may want to skip this one, but for those of you that aren’t bothered by such things (or the 3 plus hour runtime) ‘Babylon’ is recommended. It’s a unique, wild, fascinating and occasionally disturbing tale that’s boosted by great direction from talented filmmaker Damien Chazelle, not to mention a talented cast led by Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and Diego Calva, as well as a beautiful approach that features some breathtaking sets and costumes throughout. The transition to shooting for the sound era offers a startling contrast of stop-and-start frustration for the cast and crew alike, unlike the uninhibited