Yet another movie not screened for critics?

Little birdies are telling me that there will be no press screenings for the futuristic action movie Babylon A.D. before it opens in North America three days from now. However, the film, which is based on a French novel and was directed by a Frenchman, opened in France six days ago, so a few reviews have popped up already, in Variety and elsewhere. The critics who have seen the film say it’s a disappointment, and they aren’t the only ones. Director Mathieu Kassovitz told AMC yesterday that he, too, is “very unhappy with the film” because the studio, 20th Century Fox, interfered with it “from A to Z” and reduced it to “pure violence and stupidity”. Make of all that what you will.