The Book of Eli - Review

Didn't make it to the theaters the past two weeks.  Was kinda interested in seeing Youth In Revolt, but at the end of the day it seemed like every other Michael Cera movie, so I'll wait for DVD.  And circumstances kept me from seeing The Book of Eli last week.  But the stars aligned enough for me to make my way to the theater this week to catch Denzel be a badass...

About 30 years or so before, the planet went apeshit and went to war.  Motivated by religion in some form or fashion, the war went nuclear, tearing a hole in the sky and vaporizing most of the population.  Those who survived, in between trying to survive the nuclear winter, made it a point to destroy every copy of The Bible they could lay their hands on, so that no more wars could be started in the name of God.

But they missed a copy...

Denzel Washington is one of the few survivors who's old enough to remember the World Before.  He was just like everyone else who crawled out of the rubble, doing things he never imagined he'd have to just to survive.  That is, until one day a Voice guides him to a pile of rubble, where he finds a copy of the Good Book which somehow had avoided the purge.  The Voice tells him he must head West, and he will be guided to someone he's to give the Book to.

Now, the world's a pretty dangerous place.  Water's scarce, cat's a delicacy, and personal hygiene's a luxury.  People will kill you for a KFC wet nap you found somewhere.  And, let's face it, a 50-something graying man walking alone looks like an easy target.  That's because no one notices the motherhuge machete Denzel's packing, until he's already whipped it out and used it to fillet you.  So people keep underestimating him, which means he's got to kill a shitload of whippersnappers while following the Voice.

On his journey, he stops in a town to get water and recharge the battery he uses to listen to a rundown, cracked iPod loaded with Al Green songs.  As you can imagine, towns are pretty scarce in this new reality, and this one's run with an iron fist by Carnegie (Gary Oldman).  Carnegie's got some grand designs for expanding his rule, but in order to do so he feels he needs the words of the Good Book to motivate and untie the people.  So he's been sending out roving bands of marauders to grab any book they can get their hands on and bring them back to him.  It's sorta like looking for a needle in a haystack, made harder by the fact that most of the younger generation can't read, so the gangs have no idea what they're bringing back.

Some of the gang members spot Denzel in Carnegie's bar, waiting on some water, and figure him for an easy mark.  A roomful of chopped, dismembered, and headless gang members later, Denzel and Carnegie meet, and Carnegie offers Denzel a place in his society.  Denzel politely declines, even after a night of Carnegie's hospitality, which includes his stepdaughter Solara (Mila Kunis).  But when Carnegie discovers Denzel's carrying around what could be the last Bible in existence, his hopitality becomes more of an ultimatum, which Denzel the Badass refuses rigorously, littering the streets of Carnegie's town with more dead gang members and hightailing it to the West with Solara in tow and Carnegie in chase.

We've seen Denzel play a variety of roles, but never really just the all-out, Fuck-With-Me-And-Die Badass.  And, as with everything else Denzel does, he pulls it off fabulously.  As this sort of warrior monk wandering the planet like Caine from Kung Fu, Denzel delivers the dignity and righteousness of the character that you'd expect from him, but intertwined with a killing machine that you've never seen from him before.  If you were skeptical that he could pull off something in this vein, don't be.  He's awesome, and goes immediately into the Badass Hall of Fame.

Matching him frame for frame, and chewing up the scenery gloriously in a way we haven't seen in a while is Gary Oldman.  Oldman hasn't been this loose and free in a long time, maybe since Léon .  It was fair to wonder if he could still tap into that lunacy that put him on the map, and it's good to see he still can.  The rest of the cast, however, isn't given much to do.  Mila Kunis is serviceable as the Chick-In-Danger, but she really pales on the screen next to Denzel and Gary.  Ray Stevenson is given little to do as Carnegie's head henchman except to pine after Solara.  The same goes for Jennifer Beals as Solara's mother and Carnegie's putupon wife.  Michael Gambon and Frances de la Tour have a memorable, if all too brief, cameo as an older couple who have found a novel, if disgusting, way of surviving in the wilds.  And Malcolm McDowell has a blink and you'll miss it appearance as someone trying to preserve relics of the World Before.

It's been 17 years since The Hughes Brothers burst on the scene with Menace II Society, still considered by most to be the best film ever made about life in the inner city, and a full decade since their last film, the flawed but fascinating From Hell.  You might think a decade away from the game would make them rusty, but nothing could be further from the truth.  They're at the top of their game.  You can tell they spent hours in the lab, studying every post-apocalyptic flick they could get their hands on, and the lessons show.  You can put this up on the mantle alongside A Boy And His Dog, Escape From New York, and The Road Warriors as top-notch, kick-ass post-apocalyptic flicks.