The Book Of Eli Review

Plot: In the not too distant future, across the wasteland of what once was America, a lone warrior (Denzel Washington) must fight to bring civilization the knowledge that could be the key to its redemption and save the future of humanity.


Review: The post apocalyptic genre of movies are not going away any time soon.


To start off, the tone set in the beginning of the film is fantastic, very dull yet beautiful in the sense that portrays the world after an apocalypse and rebuilding. Both the tone of the world and Washington's character sets up the viewer for what is to come. The action scenes are intense and very fun to watch, sometimes a little unbelievable but still very fun to watch. I say unbelievable because there really is no background given on Washington's character, you begin to question who was this guy before the apocalypse.


Washington was truly a pleasure to watch in this film, from his witty comebacks to his overall body language. Also, having some bad-ass fighting scenes can't hurt. The addition of Gary Oldman made this movie even better to watch, the back and forth dialogue between Washington and Oldman was pleasing. I may be a little biased because i am a big fan of Oldman but he puts on a great performance and represents a power hungry man very well. Having the stunning Mila Kunis in the film can't hurt either. Granted, she did not put on a great performance, it was not a bad one. Nothing stood out to me from her, she just played her role, which sounds pretty dull.


The story was very intriguing and fun to watch and it's also a very religious one. Both Washington's and Oldman's characters have a strong belief in god and they both want to use that belief in two different ways. The story did feature a couple of plot holes, if they are even considered that. The twist at the end was believable and actually pretty clever but certainly questions of how it all makes sense will pop up, you will try to remember certain instances and piece things together. One situation that Kunis' character is put in and seemingly gets out of with no problem or no explanation of how she got out of it is a little mind boggling.


Overall, The Book of Eli was fun to watch and much better than expected. I can say that I was more than content with the film and never felt bored at any point in time of the film. All of the characters had life to them and were not boring to watch, especially Washingtons and Oldmans. Once again, The Book of Eli is proving that this January has turned out to be a much more exciting month of movies than previous ones.


Rating: 4 out of 5

Daybreakers Review

Plot: Edward Dalton, played by Ethan Hawke, a researcher in the year 2019, in which an unknown plague has transformed the world's population into vampires. As the human population nears extinction, vampires must capture and farm every remaining human, or find a blood substitute before time runs out.


My Review: First of all, i'd like to point out that January movie releases usually suck and end up being a part of the worst movies of the year discussion. With that said, Daybreakers isn't your typical January movie release.


They're were no major stars in this movie, no disrespect to Ethan Hawke or Willem Dafoe who are both great veteran actors in the business. They had very good chemistry with each other on screen, making conversations and interactions between them very natural.


As for the movie itself, it was definitely one of the goriest films i've ever seen. People who are squirmish at the sight of blood and limbs should skip this movie. The level of gore in this movie can sometimes be unexpected and disturbing but does not hinder the overall movie. Even more, the gore could be seen as a bonus to a film with a mostly fresh story.
The vampires vs humans movie concept has been done before and it has also been done from both sides of the story. Daybreakers adds a new element to this small genre with the idea of, what happens when vampires, who have completely taken over the world, have nothing to feed on? After a while it becomes survival of the fittest, which is something usually humans would deal with, not so much vampires.


To that extent, the story makes sense. As the story develops into finding a cure or a substitute to keep the vampire race alive, the story becomes confusing and at times illogical. Some people did leave the theater with a confused look on their face, questioning exactly how the cure or the substitute actually works. I won't mention what they are, I'd like to keep things spoiler free. I know this movie is set 9 or 10 years into the future but even 10 years from now, some of the things in the movie still seem illogical.


One last point i'd like to touch on is the random scares, not just in Daybreakers but in general horror movies. Without the random scares, the movie would have been horrifying due to the increasingly disturbing amount of gore. They're were 5 random scares that I counted of which the movie could have done without 3 or 4 of them. Granted, it is a horror movie and the ultimate goal of a horror movie is to scare someone. I just think they're are better ways to do it.


Overall, Daybreakers was one of the better January releases of the last few years. Most horror movies do not come out in January, so kudos to the directors, Michael and Peter Spierig, for taking a risk on a January release date. Daybreakers could have been one of the better horror releases of the last few years but lack of logic in some parts of the plot made it hard to put it in that category.


Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Movies being released in January

Usually the month of January does not present many, if any, movies worth viewing and spending your hard earned cash on. Movies like "Paul Blart: Mall cop" represent how mediocore January movies really can be. This January though seems to present a few interesting movies, interesting in the sense that they could go either way, good or bad. Here is the list of movies being released this month:

January 8th

• Daybreakers
• Youth in Revolt
• Leap Year
• Wonderful World (x)
• Bitch Slap (x)

January 15th

• The Book of Eli
• The Spy Next Door
• 44 Inches of Chest (x)

January 22nd

• Legion
• The Tooth Fairy
• Extraordinary Measures
• Creation (x)

January 29th

• When in Rome
• Edge of Darkness

(x)- Limited Release

When you look at this list of movies, it looks a lot stronger than past January lineups of movies. Headlining movies like Daybreakers, The Book of Eli and Legion seem to be very solid movies with very interesting concepts. For Daybreakers it's what happens when vampires run the world and the human race is going extinct. For Legion it's what happens when angels come from the heavens to terminate everyone on earth. Both movies possess intriguing storylines that could result in very solid movies, if done right.

Of course, movies that are doomed right from the word "go" are also featured on this list. Movies like The Spy Next door and The Tooth Fairy both seemed destined for more than just box office failure. I'll never fully understand why Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson went from Pro wrestling star to G Rated movie "star". He is an extremely gifted athlete with decent acting talent and shouldn't be starring in movies that embarass him.

All in all, its looking like a much busier January than past years. Expect a Daybreakers review on Wednesday.