Babylon AD

10:40am Friday 29th August 2008

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Babylon AD (12A) ** - Vin Diesel, Michelle Yeoh, Melanie Thierry and Gerard Depardieu.

SURPRISE, surprise, it’s another disappointing, knuckle-headed action adventure starring Hollywood's former favourite hard man Vin Diesel.

And its a film which has apparently been disowned by its director Mathieu Kassovitz over alleged changes to the final cut outside his control.

There’s plenty of action to keep die-hard thrill seekers entertained but little by the way of subtlety.

In the not-too-distant future, Diesel plays mercenary Hugo Cornelius Toorop who is recruited to transport Melanie Thierry’s Aurora, a young woman who has been genetically altered, from Russia to the US.

But what Toorop thinks is a routine assignment soon becomes a nightmarish odyssey with a number of dark forces out to get their hands on her.

Based on French novel Babylon Babies by Maurice G. Dantec, it’s a curious disappointment that even features a turn from the grand old man of Gallic cinema Gerard Depardieu as a Russian Mafia kingpin.