(1-16-10) Greetings again from the darkness.Yet another in a string of post-apocalyptic films showing Hollywood has little hope for our future.
The Hughes Brothers (Menace II Society) deliver a western/samurai tale of a man (Denzel Washington) walking west because voices in his head told him to. Those voices also told him to protect the book he is carrying (a King James Bible) and go full out Bruce Lee on anyone who tries to stop him (OK, I made that part up … but he sure does). Oh, and the man (Eli) has been walking west for THIRTY-ONE years! The real point seems to be Gary Oldman’s character (Carnegie) controls one shabby little town, but dreams of real power. The kind of power that the book can bring. Ding Ding! Religious power! He wants to be a post-apocalyptic tele-evangelist, sans TV. He just knows he can control the masses with the message of the bible. I don’t think I am giving anything away here. Good vs Evil. Just like all the great westerns.
The Hughes brothers assemble a nice supporting cast with Mila Kunis, Jennifer Beals (her mom in the film), Tom Waits, Michael Gambon and Malcom McDowell. Kunis has by far the most screen time and the final shot of her is really the only humor I found in the film … though, not even sure it was supposed to be funny.
We get a pretty bleak, yet coherent, film for the first 65%. Then it just turns unbelievable. The Shyamalan twist is downright ridiculous due to what we have been watching for the previous 90 minutes. And as much as it pains me to say, Oldman’s character is just too low rent to provide a real worthy adversary for Eli. So while the film has an interesting look, it just lacks real guts.
Posted by David Ferguson 
Movie Reviews from the Dark 