The Book of Eli

Enough time for one more movie before Sunday NFL starts, so thanks to the kind people at HBO and OnDemand I watched "the Book of Eli" this morning.

When this movie first came out, I wasn't very interested. The reviews were mixed, and if I recall my parents were not that impressed. The movie is directed by the Hughes Brothers who have made some decent movies over the years including Dead Presidents and Menace II Society. However, this movie is very different and delivers on levels that the Hughes Brothers haven't gone to before. The acting from Denzel Washington, Mila Kunis, and Gary Oldman is decent, but nothing to write about (wait isn't that what I am doing)....

So where does this movie deliver? Well it is great on a Sunday because it is like going to church (ha ha, yeah I said it). The writing really make you want to cheer for Denzel's character of Eli in this post-apocalyptic journey of faith. The antithesis to Eli is Gary Oldman's character of Carnegie and between he and Eli is Mila Kunis as Solara. With names like this you know it is a SyFy movie. If I recall this was one of the first performances by Mila Kunis to step out from her "70s Show" and "Family Guy" image. She was okay in this role, but not sure if she stands out here. Where this movie really delivers is in the action with the fight scenes. There was a bit too much explosives and gun play in the later scenes, which is when the movie starts to go down hill for me. It was as if they knew what the story was that they wanted to tell with a decent beginning and a finish, however the journey was not convincing. Not sure why Alcatraz was to be the final destination, but it just seems like an odd choice. The final twist was a bit on the lame side and the final shots of Mila Kunis getting ready to kick butt made me laugh (sorry, but she is too cute to be taken seriously as a bad ass).

I give this one a modest 3 Quacks.

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