The film follows a man named Eli (Denzel Washington) in a post-apocalyptic America thirty years after what is apparently something like a nuclear holocaust (it isn’t very clear, and the event is only referred to as “the flash”). He is escorting a book that he thinks he must take to a safe haven that he believes is in the West.

He stumbles on a town run by a man called Carnegie (Gary Oldman), whose daughter Solara (Mila Kunis) finds the book he is carrying and accidentally alerts Carnegie to its prescence. This book is the last bible on Earth. Supposedly people burned all of the bibles after the war as they thought it would destroy the society of those who survived. Denzel has it, and wants to protect it, and Carnegie wants to use it to control the population. He believes that it has the power to make him, in the eyes of the weak and desperate, a prophet.

Eli flees, Solara tags along, and Carnegie chases after them. You have seen this story done before. This is very similar to any other post-apocalyptic action film in the story department almost to the point of being a simple rip-off with a new sort of goal at the end. Having said that, “The Book of Eli” is pretty darn exciting. The action, while rare, is awesome as it comes and the acting was solid all across the board. Unfortunately, there isn’t much more to say about this one other than that the ending was a little unsatisfying and I wish the film was a little bit longer, but those are minor gripes. The story is derivative and the characters lack complexity, but the movie provides for excellent entertainment nevertheless.

B