The Book of Eli Movie Review

So what can I say about “The Book of Eli” that you don't already know from seeing the trailer? Well, it's a “road movie”, you know those very typical type of movies where the main character or characters spend the duration of the movie trying to get from point A to point B. There are a lot of these types of movies like “The Wizard”, “The Lord of the Rings”, “Thelma and Louise”, etc, etc.

Basically Denzel Washington needs to get the Bible to the west coast in a post apocalyptic world for no better reason than that his faith tells him he should. This reminds me a lot of the movie “The Wizard” where Fred Savage and his handicapped brother set out for California just because his handicapped brother has an unknown desire to go. Don't pretend like you don't remember this movie, it's the one about Nintendo. Awesome!

Gary Oldman wants the Bible for his own more greedy purposes and they fight over it. That pretty much sums up the plot. Mila Kunis is in there as my friend Billy so eloquently put it to “spread hotness throughout the land”.

So first the good then the bad. The ultra violent scenes in this movie are really well shot and really entertaining. The cinematography is solid and the action scenes are tight and exciting. That's about it for the good.



Now onto the bad! In between the action sequences there really isn't much that happens. In fact aside from the movie's violent outbursts it's rather boring. The movie also fails to capture the real desperation of a world where you're forced to eat people to survive. Maybe it was because I just saw “The Road” with Viggo Mortensen (which was truly intense) or maybe it's because every main character has a bright shiny new pair of Oakley sunglasses. Seriously Denzel barters water for wet naps from KFC (the shop keep is amazed to see wet naps) yet everyone can manage to keep the lenses of their shades scratch and dirt free while kung fu fighting in the desert. When I say WTF I mean WTF? Also, there isn't really any worthwhile dialog to the whole film. If you're a fan of good solid dialog look elsewhere. The best line in the film is borrowed from Johnny Cash.

I guess this is the part where I give you the trailer to the movie I'm reviewing but... to hell with it, here's a clip from “The Wizard”. Imagine Denzel Washington in this role and you've got it!