Movie Review: The Book of Eli

Today, after a great used-book store shopping trip (4 used-book stores, 1 magazine store and two restaurants) I checked out the new film The Book of Eli.

First impressions - the film was very fun, it had all the stuff I like in post-apocalyptic films (blasted landscapes, intriguing characters, and an epic tone), the fight scenes were violent but not too violent, and most importantly, it had a sense of hope. Far too often I find that post-apocalyptic films are entirely devoid of anything positive (The Day After is my personal least favourite of these kind of films - yes, we get it - Nuclear was is bad and radiation is too, now how about some story?), so the hopeful aspects of this film made me smile.

I don't want to get into too many spoilers here, but I can say that I'd like to watch it again and I enjoyed all of the main characters - Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman gave me exactly what I've come to expect from them, and I was pleasantly surprised by Mila Kunis (pictured with Washing above and who I've only seen in comedy before). I also loved seeing Rome's Ray Stevenson and The L Word's Jennifer Beals in strong supporting roles.

In the end, a good post apocalyptic film, an original screenplay (which is becoming increasing rare these days) and I loved the visuals. I recommend it without hesitation.

Bookmonkey's top 5 Genre Films to see before Summer 2010

Knowing that I'll be seeing a lot of films this summer (starting with Iron Man 2 in May), I decided that I should try to cut back on the number of genre films I'll see between now and April. The problem is, there are a lot of films I'd like to see in the next couple of months.

Luckily, as a parent, I'll likely end up taking my kids to see Alice in Wonderland as well as Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, so those two can kind of be considered family outings.

5. The Lovely Bones

This one is pretty simple: a) I loved the book, and b) Peter Jackson is directing. The visuals for this movie look pretty amazing and the novel really got to me, so yeah, I'll be seeing this one.

4. The Book of Eli

As anyone who reads my blog is aware, I'm a big lover of post-apocalyptic films. Add to that the fact that it is an original screenplay, and its brought to us by the guys who directed From Hell, and I am definitely on board.

3. Clash of the Titans

All right, I'll admit it. A big part of why I want to see this is the funky trailer which appears to have used a modified version of the song The Bird and the Worm, by the Used as background music. I loved the original version of this film, and am basically looking forward to a fun Saturday afternoon popcorn movie.

2. Hot Tub Time Machine

A comedic Science Fiction film wherein four guys travel back to the '80s in a Hot Tub time machine. This will either be extremely awesome, or extremely stupid. The presence of John Cusack definitely raises the bar for me, and the fact that it's being made by the director of Grosse Point Blank and High Fidelity also deserves notice.

1. The Wolfman

About five years ago my youngest daughter went through a classic monster movie phase, and one of the stand out titles for me was The Wolf Man. A man who is in effect both the good guy and the bad guy in the film seemed very cool to me at the time. In an age where virtually every film is being remade, I can say that I am actually really looking forward to this one.