Denzel Washington's latest, The Book of Eli, is a post-apocalyptic, dirt laden, knockdown drag out fight with a spiritual side. As the title character Eli, Denzel Washington, is on a quest to the west coast through the dead lands of what used to be America. Now a barren wasteland, thanks to nuclear winter some thirty years prior, the country is like something right out of Mad Max. Eli is walking across the country with the sole purpose of delivering a sacred book that could hold the key to the salvation of mankind. The trip is going pretty well, with the exception of a few yellow toothed road hoodlums looking to relieve him of any goods he may have. Eli is making his way just fine, that is until he stops in a small town for supplies, a small town that happens to be run by the evil Carnegie(played by Gary Oldman), the one person looking for the book that Eli has. From here Eli has to fight against all odds to escape the town and complete his journey to the West to deliver the book and save mankind.
Man is Denzel Washington one cool cat. I don't know another single human being who could literally be dressed like a homeless person and still pull off the strut that he has. But the strut is not all he has as we finally get to see Denzel kicking ass and taking names with the best of them. To say I was impressed by the action scenes in this movie would be an understatement. What wouldn't be an understatement is to say that there were not enough of them. The trailers made this movie look like a balls to the wall action extravaganza, but that's not what we get. What you do get is an interesting story in a barren wasteland with great acting and some amazing action sprinkled in between. The movie does redeem itself with these other qualities, which is a lot for me to say because I don't like being misled. It doesn't hurt the supporting cast consisted of the amazing Gary Oldman, the beautiful Mila Kunis, and the downright scary Ray Stevenson. Oldman plays his character, Carnegie, to near perfection. You can never quite tell if his true intentions are noble or self-serving. I can only hope that this film will redeem Ray Stevenson of the critical failure that was Punisher War Zone (but not this critic I loved that movie). I was most impressed, or should I say surprised, with Kunis. Not so much her acting ability as it was her ability to handle herself in the action scenes. It's rare to find such a slight feminine woman who can handle herself believably onscreen and still look good doing it, I could see a serious future as an action heroine for Mila. While I said before that there wasn't much action to be seen what they did film is more than worth watching. The fight scenes come off more as a dance of deadly blades and flying fists than of some jumbled mess add the calm cool and collected Washington in the middle and you got a recipe for excellence. I've already read some reviews that fault the movie for some improbable set pieces, specifically Eli’s iPod. You know what you have to have some suspension of disbelief when you watch a movie, hell the filmmakers even took the time to show how he charges it and make it one of the major plot points of the movie so don't let that dissuade you. All this and more as the movie even comes with a twist that surprised even me, nothing on the level of “Luke I am your father”, but a good surprise nonetheless. Finally, the film even comes with some political commentary that’ll really make you think. In this dust bowl of a world in which Eli lives money means nothing. People trade and use as currency things that you and I would throw away without thought. I'm serious, Eli literally buys goods with KFC wet naps, hell even the sacred book itself is something that we could today find anywhere we looked.
If you look at the trailers for ‘The Book of Eli’ and thought holy crap that looks bad ass, you may be in for a bit of a surprise. While it's not the movie the trailers make it appear to be it's still worthwhile flick and one I would definitely plunk down my $10 for. Don't get me wrong, the action seen in the trailer is definitely in the movie it's just that you don't get as much as you might think. This lack of action is more than made up for an honestly there's not much else out right now, so what do you have to lose. Go check out ‘The Book of Eli’, I honestly don't think you'd be disappointed.
