Wow! Such a good movie.

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Glad to see that Eric Jonrush's "The Spoils of Babylon" has finally gotten out to the wider public. Sure, it's been available for years on the collectors' circuit, on shabby VHS dubs from shady dealers at shadier fan conventions, but now, finally, it can be seen in its original fidelity and quality.Which really isn't that much better.There's a reason why certain projects get released, and others remain on the shelf, whether that shelf be in an air-conditioned film vault in a major movie studio or in a pawn shop. SOB is a case in point. And apparently, Eric Jonrush has reached that point; desperate, pining for former glories. A sad, obese old man draped in tent-like garb, swilling mid-priced wine and flirting with waitresses one-third his age. We see this much in the recorded introductions to the episodes of this mini-series.I actually had not ever bothered to track down any of those low fidelity bootleg tape versions, usually made from a single, unauthorized broadcast on an Indonesian cable channel in 1987. But, I must admit, I was curious.Though I had not read any of Jonrush's source novels, I had seen several of his potboiler films. Those were all much better than SOB.I frankly wallowed in the cheesiness of "The Barbarian Hordes," his Roman A Clef expose of his time working in the advertising industry on Madison Avenue, in retrospect an amazing precursor to "Mad Men." TBH had the distinct advantage of being written by a direct eyewitness, but the distinct disadvantage of being written without any talent. It's a nutty conflation of The Man In The Gray Flannel Suit, Darren Stephens from Bewitched, and the worst parts of The Fountainhead, without any of Ayn Rand's subtlety. And, yes, lots of sex scenes thrown in.I stood in awe of his most widely seen film, "The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of," the sweeping, star-studded epic about the early days of the Hollywood studio system. Most famous for its bizarre casting of then current stars playing stars of the past. (Kate Jackson as Mary Pickford! Tom Selleck as Charlie Chaplin!) I spent weeks trying to puzzle out the complicated wonders of "The Aubergine Conundrum," his police/spy/detective/murder mystery/courtroom drama: equal parts Perry Mason, The Maltese Falcon, and Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In.But those productions had notable advantages over SOB: they were produced by major studios and had decent budgets behind them. Though SOB (the novel) did show up on the bestseller lists, it wasn't the kind of runaway hit that has Hollywood beating down a writer's door. And with only three television networks at that time, the available slots filled up fast, especially for tent-pole productions like sweeping, multi-part epics.Jonrush, seething to get SOB made, could not take the rejection and put up his own money to complete the production. His caviar tastes and baloney budget forced him to cast little known actors, including his then-wife, Laureigha Samcake, and low profile soap opera hunk Dirk Snowfield. Samcake is way out of her depth, but she tries her best. She's even out-acted by the mannequin playing Lady Anne. Yes, in one case, Jonrush's limited budget meant that for one role, he could not afford to hire an actress, only a voice over artist. Only Samcake's endless fashion parade of ever-changing wigs keeps her afloat. Snowfield is not much better, with his accent that wanders more than Jack Kerouac and his Bob Dylan hairpiece. The decision to use scale models for sets rather than stock footage is a curious one, especially when it is discovered that a crew of Old World craftsmen was flown in especially from Switzerland to construct each model by hand out of thousands of matchsticks, which Jonrush paid for in Krugerands.Believe it or not, the writing is actually the least awful thing about SOB. After a while I started getting into the story and the relationships between the characters. Would Devin wrest control of Morehouse Conglomerated from Cynthia? Would that little twerp Winston get what was coming to him? So many questions, and so little wine to find the answers.Why doesn't anyone try to film romance novels anymore? Here you have the response to that query, in full color. Advisable for Jonrush completists only.

"The Spoils of Babylon" plays nicely off the sweeping tropes of sweeping television dramas of the sweeping past, mostly relying on silliness and the absurd--and, it has to be said, UK spoof series "Garth Marenghi's Darkplace". This is crystal clear from the episode introductions, supposedly looking back on one artist's tragically lost TV masterpiece, and from the low-budget opening title sequence and home-made establishing shots, which call to mind the "striking" approach to the obviously cardboard Darkplace Hospital.There are some wobbles to the concept here. While Darkplace maintained the trappings of a pitiful budget throughout, Spoils enjoys some stunning location shoots that don't quite make sense beside money-saving scale-model inserts. There is a similar competence on the part of the imaginary actors, who rarely chew the scenery quite as much as they might, whereas Garth's collection of pals were every bit as terrible as the show he built around them. However, the basic parody of the genre works and raises at least a smile along the way.

Any fan of the Abraham-Zucker-Zucker send-ups who hated pretentious '70s mini-dramas should find some amusement in "The Spoils of Babylon." There's a ridiculousness to the entire project, including its heavy promotion, that plunges deeply into absurdity. This is parody that produces chuckles rather than guffaws, and the humor is in the details. Effort was expended to make every scene excessively cheesy, although when sustained at this extreme level can dull the senses. An excellent cast can be commended for executing such ludicrous material in the straight deadpan manner required.This is a show that doesn't work for those needing their satire to be clever or witty. Instead, TSOB bludgeons the viewer with the preposterous, from the overblown melodramatic dialog to the intentionally fake props and special effects to the blatant references to previous directorial styles.To best appreciate TSOB, take it at face value and don't expect more than what it is, which is unadulterated spoof without refinement or sophistication.

Firstly let me say that we need a negative score for this show....-10.... I have watched more than a few poor quality shows in my time but nothing has ever come close to this. It was time I have lost forever ........... Never have I seen anything that was listed as comedy, fall so far from that realm.. it was appalling in every way imaginable. I made the mistake of watching 2 yes TWO full episodes of this rubbish.. now I am commenting for the first time so that other people might be spared that horror... I can honestly say that it was the worst show I have ever watched.... There was not one redeeming feature about this show, maybe there was 1 redeeming feature each episode was ONLY 22 minutes long............I am so disappointed because I WAS looking forward to this show..I cannot understand how people have rated it as highly as they have....and how any actors, producers and/or directors can put their name to such a bundle of rubbish/***t