It’s as if someone who saw last week’s apocalyptic drama The Road said, “Let’s do it again, but this time let’s make it rubbish”. The Book of Eli, from the fraternal directing duo Albert and Allen Hughes (From Hell), is a Denzel Washington movie about a mysterious stranger called Eli who wanders the scorched landscapes of post-apocalyptic America protecting the very last copy of the King James Bible, and dismembering lots of grizzly road warriors with an enormous machete. Eli’s nemesis is a pockmarked tyrant called Carnegie (Gary Oldman), who is desperate to get his claws on the Good Book so that he can brainwash his few remaining henchmen with its message of hope. None of it makes any sense, and the closing scenes are defined by a howlingly poor cameo from Michael Gambon (playing a hillbilly cannibal) and the dutiful setting up of a sequel that clearly will never happen.
The Book of Eli
Guess what? Someone’s watched The Road and has then said: ‘Let’s do it again, but this time let’s make it rubbish’