27 Jan 2010, Posted by Alex Shofner in Articles,Film Reviews,Reviews, 1 Comments

The Book of Eli Review

The Hughes Brothers’ (From Hell, Menace II Society) latest directorial effort comes in the form of an action-packed, trope-filled, post-apocalyptic traveller film. Eli (Denzel Washington) is the traveller, he protects himself from cannibals and the secret book that he carries from those who would use it for evil. It’s pretty obvious from the beginning that the book is a copy of the King James Bible, and we find out as the movie goes on that, due to a massive book burning sometime after the world-ending event, his bible is the only one left on the planet.

There’s a great deal of ass-kicking in this movie. And since it’s Denzel, he does his ass-kicking in the badass way that only Denzel can do it. We never really learn what apocalypse occurred to put the world into this mess, but everyone has to wear sunglasses outside or they will go blind. We never really learn how Denzel learned all his amazing combat techniques, such as his ability to shoot a bird out of the sky with a bow and arrow, or his ability to kill seven men attacking him at once, one of them a gigantic man wielding a chainsaw.

The movie felt like the Hughes brothers had crashed Mad Max into A Fistful of Dollars without bothering to pick up the pieces. If you are just looking for a trope-filled action movie and a wild ride, The Book of Eli will definitely entertain you, as it did me. But don’t look for anything deeper, there’s nothing there. Gary Oldman and Mila Kunis both turned in decent performances, but neither (through no fault of their own) were close to their best.

Oh, and I haven’t seen such a terrible, nonsensical final twist in a movie since The Happening. Seriously. I won’t give it away, but it was absurd.

ShofScore: 5/10

– Alex Shofner