The_Book_of_Eli: Eli is a man with a mission. Deliver a book. Kill anyone who would stop him. Denzel Washington plays our unnamed wanderer - he's only attached to the name Eli - on a holy mission in a post-apocalyptic world to take the world's last copy of the King James Bible to a promised land somewhere West. To get there, he must pass through a Mad Max-esque community –more of a Wild West town, really - Washington butts heads with fellow bibliophile Gary Oldman, a nefarious power broker who believes the Bible will help him expand his empire. Imagine a cross between the worlds of "The Road" and “Thunderdome" and you'll have an idea.

So, our loner trudges in battered shoes across a sun-blasted landscape in a worn-out coat, a tattered backpack and sunglasses, occasionally stumbling into other denizens of this wasteland. They always want to know what’s in that backpack. “A book.” They always want to see it. Some of them insist. Eli, naturally, will have none of it. He hasn't guarded the book all this time to hand it over to just anyone. So he leaves the town, albeit violently, with Solara (Mila Kunis) in tow; she's had enough of Carnegie's mistreatment of her and her mother, Claudia (Jennifer Beals). (Like some survivors of the war, Claudia was blinded; Carnegie isn't exactly the picture of compassion). And then, in pure Mad Max mode, out comes the machete and off comes a hand. If he kills them, Eli says a little prayer afterward.

The movie’s over-the-top violence is cartoonish at times, menacing at others. It essentially is a Western, with old-fashioned shootouts and barroom brawls interrupted by telling details of a global disaster: Water and Chapstick are priceless, battery use must be rationed, signs of suicidal behavior is rampant.

Written by Gary Whitta, "The Book of Eli" is the first film from directors Albert and Allen Hughes since the gothic thriller "From Hell" (2001). Best known for the urban crime saga "Menace II Society" (1993), the Hughes Brothers are accomplished filmmakers who bring enough energy to their latest effort to make up for a post-apocalyptic scenario that's mostly by-the-book. Yet they rarely establish a tone that would make this material seem fresh.