Film: The Book of Eli

GENRE: Action/Drama/Sci-Fi

RATING: R for some brutal violence

RUNTIME: 1 hour and 57 minutes

STARRING: Denzel Washington (Man on Fire),

Gary Oldman (Air Force One), Mila Kunis (Max Payne)

DIRECTOR: The Hughes Brothers (From Hell)

WRITERS: Gary Whitta (newcomer)

PLOT: A post-apocalyptic tale, where a lone man goes west to protect a sacred book.

FIVE OBSERVATIONS:

1 Being a Christian, I was impressed with the religious overtones in this film. I love how they unabashedly talk about the power and the importance of the Bible.

2 This film is beautifully shot. The camera has this mesmerizing flow to it. The clouds in the background, the silhouettes when Denzel is killing people, the dusty roads. All good.

3 There is definitely some brutal violence in this film. Denzel is pretty handy with his machete, but Washington’s performance trumps the gratuitous mayhem. There are plenty of slower, reflective moments in this movie.

4 You can’t help but think of Mad Max and The Road Warrior when watching this film. And Gary Oldman reminded me of Mickey Roarke’s bad guy role in Enrique’s Hero music video.

5 Some of the product placement was a little silly. Apparently, GMC and Motorola outlasted the apocalypse. The KFC moist towelettes instead of soap was fun, though.

RECOMMENDATION: DVD (It’s almost out of theatres)

UPCOMING REVIEWS: Shutter Island