Denzel Washington is walking through a wasted land in preachy postapocalyptic thriller
THE BOOK OF ELI (The Hughes Brothers, 2010)
Opens Friday, January 15
www.thebookofeli.warnerbros.com
The Hughes brothers’ postapocalyptic thriller, THE BOOK OF ELI, looks great, and star and producer Denzel Washington is great, but as the story continually teases the audience with a series of more and more ridiculous “revelations,” the film devolves into a jaw-droppingly awful mess. Washington plays the walker, a man who has been journeying west across a desolate land laid low by a war that ended three decades before, leaving death and destruction in its wake. He’s on a mission, carrying with him a treasured book, the last of its kind, and he’s well equipped to protect it with his life — and with an arsenal of supercool weapons that he uses on deranged men roaming around looking for people to rob and women to rape. But soon he finds himself in a no-horse town run by the villainous Carnegie (Gary Oldman), who thinks he can expand his domain if only he could get his grubby hands on a book that he’s been searching for — and that the walker just happens to have and is not about to give up. Things really start falling apart once Solara (Mila Kunis), the daughter of Carnegie’s blind girlfriend (Jennifer Beals), decides to join the walker on the run. THE BOOK OF ELI is a mad mix of THE ROAD WARRIOR, THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST, YOJIMBO, HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER, FAHRENHEIT 451, and not at all in a good way. You’re much better off sitting down for a few hours and reading a good book.