The apocalypse must be looming on the horizon. If 2009 didn't have enough futuristic downers, 2010 opens with interesting The Book of Eli. Starring Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman and Mila Kunis, the comparisons to The Road and The Road Warrior and even The Postman will be plenty, but Washington's Eli and The Hughes Brothers’ derivative vision crawls along but offers some great moments.

The Book of Eli is Albert and Allen Hughes' first film since 2001's From Hell. Looking strikingly similar to The Road, The Book of Eli's washed out, nuked and cratered wasteland is a great setting for Washington to wander around in. Meeting raiders, cannibals, hairless cats and a town full of illiterate miscreants, Eli is on a pilgrimage West to deliver his precious book. The task seems rather simple and he appears to be on a mission from God, but instead of preaching, Eli gets down to some lightning-quick decapitations and disembowelments if pressed.  Blowing into a ramshackle town, Eli collides with Carnegie (Gary Oldman looking delightfully grizzled). Carnegie, the only other literate man in the movie, wants to employ Eli after he witnesses the ease at which Eli disposes of his goon squad. Eli refuses the job, and when Carnegie learns that Eli is in possession of the book he so desperately desires, things get gritty.

Washington plays Eli with subtle passion, and the character is the films altruistic oddball until he teams with Solara (Mila Kunis, looking a bit too sexy for this dreary desert). Oldman must have grown tired of his good guy roles in some recent blockbusters and opted to exhume a quirky despot full of madness, something he has excelled at in the past. The sparse supporting cast features Michael Gambon (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince), Ray Stevenson (Punisher: War Zone), Malcom McDowell (Doomsday), Jennifer Beals and Tom Waits, all of whom work very well in their roles, but Gambon gets a special hats-off for his character. While the cast fits, the story crawls. Think of the The Road Warrior without vehicles and fighting over a Bible instead of gasoline. It doesn't make for that great of action but when Washington decides to dispatch bad guys, it's great. The religious tones get a bit heavy handed, but when the twists in the plot are exposed the pedestrian pace is more forgivable.

The Book of Eli has a few problems, but fans of the post-apocalyptic genre will gobble this up. There is something amazing and engaging about watching mankind degrade into factions of cannibals, morons, rapists and greedy thugs. Everything in The Book of Eli's wasteland has been seen before; sometimes worse, sometimes better. But for a change, Eli is the true good guy and a tragic character that you root for because he deserves much more than this desolation. That's something that has been missing from the post-apocalypse genre for a while and the religious tones are delightfully different from the usual Nuclear Holocaust / Extreme Survival stuff. If the movie shaved off about a half-hour, it would be nicer for the tush tolerance and probably keep the action fans sedated in their seats.

Denzel Washington: Eli
Gary Oldman: Carnegie
Mila Kunis: Solara
Jennifer Beals: Claudia
Ray Stevenson: Redridge
Michael Gambon: George

Release Date: January 15, 2010
Studio: Alcon Ent. / Warner Bros.
Genre:  Suspense / Action
Rated: R      1 hr 58 mins

CAST:

The Book of Eli

January 19, 2010

Reviewer: Rottenbucher

DIRECTOR:

The Hughes Brothers

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