Not a Particularly Good 'Book'
Christopher Swietlik
Issue date: 2/8/10 Section: Entertainment
Welcome to the wasteland that is the post holiday box office. It is a special time between Christmas and May that serves as the dumping ground for many of the studios' films that look to take advantage of less competitive seasons by making lack luster films look better than they actually are, by surrounding them with other lack luster films.
I went to "Book of Eli" optimistic that the performances of Denzel Washington as the titular Eli, and Gary Oldman (Sirius Black or Commissioner Gordon to you, and yes they are the same person) as the villain would shine through a film that was almost assuredly not going to be as good as the trailer made it appear to be. The story revolves around Eli traveling west holding the last King James Bible on Earth because all others have been burned following the vaguely referred to "war." He stumbles into a town on his journey west to get a charge for his iPod (no joke), which is run by a man named Carnegie, who has been searching for such a Bible for a long time. Carnegie believes the book is a weapon that can be used to control the minds of the people of his town.
However Denzel fails to dazzle. The Bible verses he delivers seem to be chosen at random without any real feeling behind them. Oldman does an equally average job, failing to give his villain any real depth or make him memorable in any way. Mila Kunis plays one of Carnegie's servants, who befriends Eli, but fails to be more than something pretty to look at for the targeted male demographic.
The real problem with the "Book of Eli" is that somewhere deep down there is a very good movie yearning to break out. The Hughes Brothers, who direct the film, take an interesting idea and fail to help it live up to its potential. The one redeeming aspect of this film is its twist ending that should be predictable, but isn't because the viewer may find it hard to believe that this movie is capable of offering the audience something besides what is on the surface.
3/5 stars
I went to "Book of Eli" optimistic that the performances of Denzel Washington as the titular Eli, and Gary Oldman (Sirius Black or Commissioner Gordon to you, and yes they are the same person) as the villain would shine through a film that was almost assuredly not going to be as good as the trailer made it appear to be. The story revolves around Eli traveling west holding the last King James Bible on Earth because all others have been burned following the vaguely referred to "war." He stumbles into a town on his journey west to get a charge for his iPod (no joke), which is run by a man named Carnegie, who has been searching for such a Bible for a long time. Carnegie believes the book is a weapon that can be used to control the minds of the people of his town.
However Denzel fails to dazzle. The Bible verses he delivers seem to be chosen at random without any real feeling behind them. Oldman does an equally average job, failing to give his villain any real depth or make him memorable in any way. Mila Kunis plays one of Carnegie's servants, who befriends Eli, but fails to be more than something pretty to look at for the targeted male demographic.
The real problem with the "Book of Eli" is that somewhere deep down there is a very good movie yearning to break out. The Hughes Brothers, who direct the film, take an interesting idea and fail to help it live up to its potential. The one redeeming aspect of this film is its twist ending that should be predictable, but isn't because the viewer may find it hard to believe that this movie is capable of offering the audience something besides what is on the surface.
3/5 stars
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