MOVIE REVIEW | The Book of Eli (2010)

“I need that book, I want that book.  I want you to stay but if you make me have to choose, I’ll kill you and take that book!”

I like Denzel Washington as an actor.  But looking at his IMDB, I realise that I haven’t seen all that many Denzel Washington movies.  It also makes me realise that while he makes a lot of popcorn, pay cheque movies, I’ve seen even less of them.  Instead, I tend to have seen the wankier, more highbrow movies.  But he’s a legit blockbuster movie star, making legit blockbusters.  Even the Denzel blockbusters I have seen, like Training Day and Crimson Tide, are all about tension and dialogue, not explosions and fist fights.  So I decided it was time to get some downright, low brow Denzel action into me with, The Book of Eli.

Wandering a post apocalyptic wasteland, Eli (Washington) is attacked by some bandits.  In quick order, he dispatches them all and continues on his badass way.  Coming to what passes for a town in this world, he has another run in to once again prove he’s not someone to be messed with.  He catches the attention of the town’s leader, Gary Oldman as Carnegie.  Carnegie is on the hunt for a very special book in a world where books are rare.  And it just so happens that Eli is in possession of a book that he seems very protective of.

***2014 RECAP*** MOVIE REVIEW | Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)

“Apes not kill apes”.

Rise of the Plant of the Apes surprised pretty much everyone. From the campy original series, to the terrible Tim Burton attempted reboot at the turn of the century, the Planet of the Apes franchise couldn’t have had less cache than it did three years ago. But against the odds, it turned out to be a great movie, telling a great story, exhibiting some pretty ground breaking motion capture effects that upped the anti from things like The Lord of the Rings and King Kong. The only problem with that kind of unexpected success is, all of a sudden, the inevitable sequel has a lot more pressure on it to be good. A lot higher expectations to live up to. Which is why it’s so impressive that Dawn of the Planet of the Apes exceeds that pressure and those expectations.

Jason Clarke is Malcolm, part of a small group of humans who survived the Simian Flu, which wiped out most of the population a decade earlier. Trekking through the woods outside San Fran Cisco, headed to repair a dam that could restore power to the dilapidated city, they are confronted by one of the super intelligent apes who have been bust building their own community. Realising these chimps are smarter than the average roller skating, cigar smoking, music grinder dancing monkey, Malcolm convinces the human leader (Gary Oldman as Dreyfus) that a peaceful alliance with the apes is the way to go.

MOVIE REVIEW | Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)

“Apes not kill apes”.

Rise of the Plant of the Apes surprised pretty much everyone. From the campy original series, to the terrible Tim Burton attempted reboot at the turn of the century, the Planet of the Apes franchise couldn’t have had less cache than it did three years ago. But against the odds, it turned out to be a great movie, telling a great story, exhibiting some pretty ground breaking motion capture effects that upped the anti from things like The Lord of the Rings and King Kong. The only problem with that kind of unexpected success is, all of a sudden, the inevitable sequel has a lot more pressure on it to be good. A lot higher expectations to live up to. Which is why it’s so impressive that Dawn of the Planet of the Apes exceeds that pressure and those expectations.

Jason Clarke is Malcolm, part of a small group of humans who survived the Simian Flu, which wiped out most of the population a decade earlier. Trekking through the woods outside San Fran Cisco, headed to repair a dam that could restore power to the dilapidated city, they are confronted by one of the super intelligent apes who have been bust building their own community. Realising these chimps are smarter than the average roller skating, cigar smoking, music grinder dancing monkey, Malcolm convinces the human leader (Gary Oldman as Dreyfus) that a peaceful alliance with the apes is the way to go.