The Book of Eli

I have decided that I want to use this blog to post personal movie reviews about movies that I watch (either new in theaters or others that I watch during the week). So, here goes the first one... I am by no means a film critic, this is just the way I see them. Take it or leave it.

Tonight, I went and saw "The Book of Eli" in theaters. The movie was fairly good overall. I am a huge Denzel Washington fan and was very anxious to see this movie after seeing the previews. The movie started out VERY slow. When I say that it was slow, I mean that I almost fell asleep during a few scenes that contained a heavy amount of dialogue. After about 30 minutes, I wasn't sure what was going on in the movie except that Eli (Denzel Washington) was a stud! The movie had its share of action scenes with Eli kicking some major butt, however the time between the action scenes were fairly slow. The writers needed that time to set up some major plot points that do not come into complete existence until the last few scenes of the movie.

It was very refreshing to watch a major movie out of Hollywood that did not do everything in its power to bash Christianity, religion or the Bible. In fact, this movie did the opposite! Everyone who saw that movie was exposed to the Word of God. And the way it happened was very cool and in a way that I would not have imagined. I will say that this movie was one that you had to stick with until the end in order to figure out why you watched the previous hour and a half.

The Book of Eli had its fair share of language in the script. And when I say fair share... I mean enough for this movie and another PG-13 movie. I didn't know that it was possible to use the F-bomb so many times (outside of Boondock Saints and The Departed). There was also a lot of strong violence that would make some of the strong at heart, cringe. Even though there was no adult content that Hollywood loves to throw into every movie, whether it is needed or not, I would say to leave the kids at home for this one. Oh yeah, and its R rated anyway, so you shouldn't have any reason to disagree on that.

Overall, I give The Book of Eli a 3 stars out of 5. Make sure you are not tired when you see it because the large amount of dialogue will wreck havoc on your resolve to remain awake.