Denzel Washington Preaches 'The Book of Eli' (2010)

Starring: Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis, Ray Stevenson, Jennifer Beals, Frances de la Tour, Michael Gambon, and Tom Waits.

Directed by: Albert Hughes and Allen Hughes.

Released: January 15th, 2010.

As early as it is for the 21st century, we have seen more than enough apocalyptic films than we can stomach - "28 Days Later" (2003), "I Am Legend" (2007), "2012" (2009), "The Road" (2009), "The Day After Tomorrow" (2004), and "Doomsday" (2008) to name a few. Most recently in this past month of January 2010, we have been hit with one end-of-the-world themed film after the other, from "Daybreakers" to "Legion" to "The Book of Eli", the later of which stars Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman (a pretty good hero vs. villain match-up if you ask me). Nothing's wrong with apocalyptic films, it's just a matter of making a good one. "The Book of Eli" presents to us the modern-day religious version of Mad Max himself, Eli (played by Denzel Washington), a loner with impressive survival and combat skills.

Eli has been given the assignment from Lord Almighty himself to deliver the last copy of the bible to a safe place on the west coast of the United States. While searing for water, obstacles arise when Eli detours through a makeshift town built and ran by the villainous Carnegie (played by Gary Oldman), a nut job with a vision of rebuilding society, a vision which he bases upon the hopes of finding one particular book (you guessed it). Carnegie regularly sends out his henchmen to scavenge the post-apocalyptic wastelands for this book but Eli happens to fall right into his territory. Siding with Eli in this religious war, so to speak, is Carnegie's blind wife Claudia (played by Jennifer Beals) and their daughter Solara (played by Mila Kunis).

Much like in "The Road", the apocalypse that has befallen the world in "The Book of Eli" is rather unimportant. While this is acceptable, this bombed-out futuristic look seems all too familiar (need I say "Mad Max" again?). "The Book of Eli" has an interesting twist at the end but doesn't have a long enough story to precede it which leads me to another problem, the film is way too short for its own good. It doesn't take too long after Eli escapes Carnegie's town for the movie to end, it's only a good forty minutes or so away. Other than that, Eli is a fun character to watch and so is the overall cast in this film. I must ponder Gary Oldman's villain, however; this guy hasn't played a good villain since "The Professional" (1994) and "The Fifth Element" (1997), the madman whom he plays here simply lacks that menacing quality. However, all flaws aside, "The Book of Eli" is quite the righteous passable film.