Director: Albert & Allen Hughes
Starring: Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis
By far my favourite actor of the past ten years, Denzel Washington has been in some kick ass movies. American Gangster, De Javu, Inside Man, Man on Fire, the man is a legend. Denzel’s last flick Pelham 123 however was a bit of a disappointment, so i hope he is back to his best in The Book Of Eli. Also Gary Oldman, a very reliable actor, has a great reputation for being a bad ass villain. Will they live up to the hype?
In 2007, something changed the face of the earth forever, destroying and killing nearly everything on planet earth. They refer to it as the ‘flash’. Thirty years later, Eli (Denzel Washington) travels through the united states heading west. With him in his back pack, he carries the Holy Bible, the only one known to survived the flash. A voice talked to Eli, telling him to head west and give the book to who ever needs it most. Following these commands Eli walks through dusty waste land, what is left of the world, killing animals for food. On his journey he has learned skills in survival protecting the book and his few personal possession. The things we took for granted such as water was now more precious than gold. Entering a runned down town lead by Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a well educated man wants Eli’s book as he thinks with the book he will have control and power over the people. Eli isn’t just going to hand Carnegie the book, he will have to fight for it.
Unfortunately the Book Of Eli didn’t live up to my expectations. While Washington and Oldman’s performances were solid, the screenplay and story were weak. The plot wasn’t deep enough, not telling us what happened in the past and a lot of lengthy parts of nothing happening. I thought the story could have been more developed. On a positive note, Mila Kunis was a delight to watch. Her charisma and presence on screen is powerful and I think she will be a busy girl in 2010. The Hughes brothers, with not alot of feature films under their belt, took on this big project, with big ambitions and aspirations which unfortunately did not show on screen.