Reviews and ramblings

DVD's: Five star rating system

The Book of Eli receives: 3 stars ***

The Book of Eli (2010 Hughes Brothers)starring Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis, and Jennifer Beals is sure to please some, confuse others. Visually, the movie is stunning but I wanted more. I wanted more dialogue. I wanted more plot-line. I didn't want to have to draw my own conclusions.

The premise is a good one. Nuclear War has occurred. 30 years have passed and people are trying to continue life, even though life seems hardly worth living. Eli is on a quest to travel west, attempting to avoid contact with anyone of the many crazies occupying the world. His continuous mantra is: "Stay the course, it's not your concern." He comes to a town and confronts Gary Oldman who is the leader of this community through his brutality and control of the water. However, he is not satisfied with just control of this town. He wants to expand and feels he can only do so by obtaining the "Book," and has road crews traveling everywhere trying to find a copy of this book. Through a series of events, he discovers Eli has this book and after offering Eli pretty much anything for it, Eli says no and the action begins.

There are quite a few twists and turns along the way, enough to keep you watching. I will admit that I watched it twice, hoping that the second time might reveal storyline that I missed but it didn't. Afterwards I asked my wife what she thought of it and she shared my opinion, "It was good but it could have explained a lot more."

I am sure if I read the graphic novel many of my questions would be answered but I'm not a fan of graphic novels so there you go. I am glad I rented this instead of paying the price at the theater. This movie will probably appeal to the younger crown such as teens or college age, but for those of you who are Denzel Fans, this isn't his usual type movie. There is a certain spirituality and religious overtone that will intrigue some, but not quite enough to make this as spiritual as M. Night Shyamalan's Signs or The Lady in the Water.



Denzel gives his usual solid performance. Even without much dialogue, his facial expressions say enough.

Gary Oldman looked almost as old as he did as Dracula so many years ago. His performance was good but I'll admit I like him most now as Inspector Gordon of Batman, and Sirius Black in Harry Potter.

It was good to see Jennifer Beals. She still looks wonderful and it made me want to watch Flashdance.

Mila Kunis was the surprise. It is still hard not to see her as Jackie from the 70's show but she turns in a pretty good performance as Jennifer Beals daughter.

To sum up:

A pretty good summer movie, but  you don't like dark and violent this is not a movie you will enjoy. 


To be reviewed later:

Movies:
Valentine's Day

Books:
South of Broad--Pat Conroy
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo--Stieg Larsson

Travel:
A trip to Holiday World in Santa Claus Indiana.