The Book Of Eli is The Hughes Brothers (Menace II Society, Dead Presidents) first film since 2001's From Hell and stars Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman and Mila Kunis.
Wsahington plays a man only passingly referred to as Eli, a man walking a post apocalyptic country after an unnamed catastrophic event - its referred to as a flash in parts but like the recently released The Road we never really find out what happened. For the best really when these type of events are explained they are usually picked to pieces.
Eli carries a book with him which he has taken on himself to protect and will go to any lengths to, and trouble really starts when he arrives in a settlement of non-cannibal survivors seemingly run by Carnegie (Oldman).
Carnegie is desperately searching for a book and is sending teams out to look for it and is assisted by his right hand man Redridge (Ray Stevenson from TV's Rome).
When Carnegie discovers that Eli has the book he tries whatever it takes to get it as his gang leave the settlement to follow Eli and Solara (Kunis), a young girl who wants to tag along.
The film is definitely worth a watch and does offer a great turn from Gary Oldman - but he always does villains well he is one of the best in the field, and theres a few nice little cameo's which I won't spoil here.
It's also nicely shot, not as good as The Road (which was a far superior 'post apocalyptic man on a mission' film I had watched a few days before)
But it is quite predictable. I got the end of the films big twist quite soon into the film, not long after Washington's character arrives at the settlement, and its also slightly overlong and could have done with a ten or fifteen minute trim.
***
Nice to see The Hughes' back and always good to see Gary Oldman scenery chomping but predictable and slightly bloated.
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