MOVIE REVIEW - The Book Of Eli

Denzel Washington stars in the new The Book Of Eli this weekend at the box office. There has been a ton of pub on this one. Every time Washington makes a movie, it is an event, and we are all wondering what this movie has to offer.

Washington stars as "The Walker." It is roughly 30 years since nuclear war has virtually wiped out all of civilization on earth. Some have survived. Walker is walking west all the while protecting a sacred book along the way. His journey leads him through the worst of the worst. Those that are still alive are the most awful people imaginable. It is a dog-eat-dog world now. Water is the main currency, as money has no value. There is a certain something around our hero though. He is seemingly blessed with extraordinary self defense gifts and an inner peace that the rest of the world doesn't share.

Most of the world is illiterate now. But for those who are not, the word has spread that the book that he carries, is coveted in the highest. After stumbling through a terrible bombed out town, he runs into crude, but organized crime, who discovers he has the book and wants it for their own. And they will go to great lengths to get it. As The Walker heads west to a place an inner voice has instructed him to do, he must protect the book, and it's words within. Who is this man? This is Eli.

TBOE is a new venture for Washington, and to be fair they need him badly for this to work. And it does. His huge and powerful presence gives Eli a real shot of credibility. There is much violence here, and some of it graphic, especially early on. TBOE is also shot in a semi black and white effect that works incredibly well capturing wonderfully life after armageddon. It explains itself well and is straight forward and honest. I know there has been some real critics of this movie for whatever reason, but not from me. I found this movie to be well done for what it is.

Washington is great, and does a lot with a little. Actually, that is a theme for the whole project. With a real nice supporting cast of Gary Oldman, and Mila Kunis , TBOE takes another "end of the world" idea and makes it work. It is well paced, with well done and not over done action scenes. It's powerful and spiritual, but doesn't weigh itself down with side plot and off shoots that many movies of this nature do. It's also smart. And that's the separator here. It has a start, a point and a finish. So many movies like this just don't. They're just violent and testosterone driven to nausea. Not here.

The Book Of Eli. This is not for everyone for sure. But, if you're willing to see Denzel Washington as you've never seen him before, you should take a chance and go. Well done!