Review: The Book of Eli

-


Oh Denzel Washington, you have so much talent, you carried this film. It's a shame I had to sit through the painful 2 hours of this film to once again be baffled about how this film could've appealed to anyone.

I'm not exactly in the demographic that this film is aimed for, but since I'm married to one (adult males) I went along, hoping it would turn out to be a decent action movie. What I came out with was a film so bland that I actually had to get up and leave the theatre for 10-15 mins and sneak a peak at "The Lovely Bones" instead. When "Lovely Bones" turns into the "feel good movie" for a quick getaway we know where in trouble.

"The Book of Eli" takes place in a post apocalyptic U.S.A. It's referred to as "the war", "the accident" etc etc, but we're never really told what happens. Eli (Denzel Washington) is carrying the last known bible across the country, trying to get it to a place where it deserves to rest. He runs across a small town of people run by Carnegie (Gary Oldman) Carnegie has been looking for this bible for a long time, most of the people around these days cannot read. Therefore, his thugs haven't been able to hunt down said bible for him. The world as we see it is littered with trash and destruction, people kill each other, attempt sexual assault (although we never actually see this happen it is hinted far too many times in the film) and rob each other. Carnegie offers up Solara (Mila Kunis) in exchange for Eli to stay, she lets it slip about his bible, and then the hunt is on for Eli after he leaves town.

Washington and Oldman are fantastic actors but suffer from a weak and bland script. Mila Kunis fares well with comedy, but slips in the drama dept. They are literally not given enough to do with their characters. They are generic and predictable. The film tries to take us for a swerve towards the end, but they drop too many hints along the way for you to be full on surprised. The cinematography reminded me a lot of last years 'Doubt'. Lots of black and grey, gloomy, however it worked with 'Doubt'. You felt moved through that drama, "Eli" just feels boring and is almost like watching "Waterworld" on land instead.

Recommended: No 1.5/5 stars.

Memorable Quote: You walk by faith, not by sight. - Eli (Denzel Washington)

Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for stopping by, let's talk movies!
(comments are moderated to reduce spam)

Popular posts from this blog

Review: The Batman

-
Image
Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) has quietly been trying to make a difference as The Batman in Gotham. He can't be everywhere. He works closely with Lt Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) and they face a puzzling crime by a masked murderer going by The Riddler. (Paul Dano) As the stakes get higher, they realize just how deep corruption runs in Gotham.  The Batman is first and foremost a detective story. Director Matt Reeves obviously took inspiration from films like Se7en and Zodiac when he crafted this story. S e7en is one of my all time favorite films, so that worked well for me. I loved seeing Batman and Gordon work as a team. Same with Batman and Selina. (Zoe Kravitz) They ooze chemistry. As much as I love the Nolan trilogy, Christian Bale only really had good chemistry with Maggie Gyllenhaal. Here, Pattinson and Kravitz click together instantly.  I'll admit I was worried about Pattinson as Batman. His Bruce is VERY mopey, which fits with the story. My main issue with the movie,
Read more

Thursday Movie Picks: Wedding Movies

-
Image
How fitting that Wandering Through The Shelves has us start the month of June with movies about weddings. June brides are a thing, right? At least that's what people kept telling me when I got married in June. I just picked it because it was warm. To be honest, I don't like many wedding movies, so this was kind of tough, but here's a few I can tolerate. 1) Wedding Crashers This is one of my favorite comedies until the last 20 minutes or so when it falls flat on its face. But it's so hilarious and quotable before all of that, I can forgive it. Lock it up. 2) Rachel Getting Married I used this one for a pick last year but it's easily my favorite movie involving a wedding. The acting is fantastic. I 3) Corpse Bride Truth be told, I wasn't crazy about Corpse Bride, but like I said. Slim pickings in the wedding movie world for me. I'd watch this over a "classic" like My Best Friend's Wedding or Runaway Bride any day.  click th
Read more

Random Ramblings: The Radio Flyer Conundrum

-
Image
Recently, I was talking to someone about who I thought were the best child actors when I was also a child.  Two that really stood out to me were Elijah Wood and Joseph Mazello, and one film those two were in together was called Radio Flyer.  Then I was reminded about the uniqueness of this film. Instead of reviewing the film, I wanted to have an open discussion about the ending. It deals with a tough issue; child abuse. What I’ve noticed is the way that the film ends is interpreted many different ways, and the filmmakers never came forward to say what was right and wrong. I’m interested in hearing everyone’s opinions on it. How did you interpret the ending? Obviously spoiler alerts will follow.. For those of you who haven’t seen the film, the basic premise is this: Two young boys, Mikey (Wood) and Bobby (Mazello) move in with their single mother and her boyfriend, who refers to himself as ‘The King’. It doesn’t take long for The King to start physically abusing Bobby, and the
Read more