The Book of Eli (review)

So basically we should just go watch The Road instead?

No, we should go and read A Canticle for Liebowitz.

Once there were book trout in the shelves in the libraries. You could see them standing between the amber side panels where the white edges of their pages wimpled softly in the flow. They smelled of bookdust in your hand. Polished and spinal and torsional. On their backs were publisher patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming. Maps and mazes. Of a thing which could not be shelved back. Not be made right again. Because Dewey Decimal wasn't a very good cataloging system. In the deep rooms where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery (and western and thriller and sci-fi).

But was the book on fire? I might actually want to see a movie about people fighting over a book that's constantly on fire. Perhaps while they themselves are on fire.

I like fire.

Are the Hughes brothers doing Blood Meridian next?

Oh,ye of little faith.

Gorgeous, gorgeous movie, but then, I live in New Mexico. I like desolation.

I also live here in NM, so I'm wondering even with middling reviews if I should go see it, plus I loved the trailer.

Man, wasn't that kid so annoying? Papa this, papa that!

And yet, s/he was not as bad as this other kid who sat behind me at Where the Wild Things Are, who kept asking her dad, "Why is he so sad?" Literally, every five minutes: "why is he so sad?"

The man sighed.

Interesting review. I think though that a normal review could suffice just as well, maybe even better.

Yes, what the world needs is more normal reviews, there really aren't enough. Possibly with numbers at the end. Or stars. People like stars.

Anyway; Hilarious. Loved it. Loved PaulWs addendum too.
I haven't seen it yet, but a few have made the comparison to old sci-fi that turns on a single point, a la Twilight Zone etc, as well. While it is a bit of a problem that people aren't aware of the old stuff, and movies like this may depends on that to some degree, I could stand to see this kind of thing coming back in general.
(a sketch idea springs to mind where a lone badass traveller has to bring good sci-fi to the world before Darth Vader can get his hands on it, or something)

I sense this has a future as an Eddie Izzard piece. Maybe with some afterlife as lego animation on YouTube, too.

Brilliant review, as almost always. I was intrigued until they staged a rape scene against a remarkably ungrayed, untarnished brand-name beer truck, in what might be the worst product placement in movie history. Although Denzel cleaning his crotch with KFC wetnaps doesn't really want me to go buy mediocre chicken, either.

Still, I could appreciate a movie with religious overtones and a (mostly failed) attempt to make meaning that wasn't driven by the whacky Christian right fringe.

But I enjoyed the review a whole lot more...

Is Avatar the anti-apoca-punk or is it a variation on the theme? perhaps next weekend, the boy can ask his papa this.

Bummer, I missed "The Road." It's out of the theaters-gotta wait for DVD. I was hoping Denzel's flick was a decent
"Man wandering devastation," flick. Very creative little
review, turning on the spit.

Once again MJ proves her reliability in her bias in her movie reviews. I knew before reading it what rating this movie would get; I'm having trouble imagining a non-religious MacGuffin to substitute the Bible with, but if one could be found I'm sure this would have earned a watch on DVD.

Why is this crap counted as a 'review' by Rotten Tomatoes?

@Joe Mama:

Because Rotten Tomatoes are actually Killer Tomatoes, and Mary Sue, I'm sorry Maryann has threatened to sing "Puberty Love" at them unless they make room on their site for her reviews.

@Joe Mama:

Call this review what you will, you still took time to read it. :)

roflmao !! Great review !!! I might still go see it and as you know, I don't always agree with your take on flicks but damn that was quite entertaining and clever.

@twistedkestrel ... at least MJ is consistant (j/k). Every reviewer and movie watcher has a bias. What world do you live in? On the other hand, how many of the reviews on this page started with something like: "I was prepared to hate this... " or the like. MJ is open to being pleasently surprised which is as a great quality in her as her wit.

I was finally cornered by my fellow villagers and forced to watch this. I fully admit I could not get beyond the fact that I was watching another film which posits, confidentally, that a lack of faith/religiousity, however ones frames it, caused by some undefined catastrophic event, will cause anarchy, savagry, and selfish, cruel behaviour. A basic study of Western history reveals the opposite is true. If you want naked aggression and self assured inhumanity in the face of social/civilizational collapse, pump in religion. It'll provide all the obscenity and horror you'll need. The "milk of human kindness" is a function of the rational mind, not the religious/faithful one.

I'm watching this right now, and I'm gobsmacked that anyone expects me to accepts the idea that every Bible in the world (and Qu'ran, and Bhagavad Gita, and Book of Mormon, except maybe those don't count) is gone, except for Denzel's copy. There are hundred in any major hotel, and a few dozen in every deserted mall bookstore, and at least one in at least half of American homes. "They all got burned after the war" is a lampshade, not an explanation.

Regardless of the value the movie's philosophical/theological premise has, its actual premise doesn't succeed. It's a very stylish movie, with lots of washed-out filters and ripped clothing, but I honestly can't believe they dried to hang a full-length movie on the concept of "what if there were only one Bible left in the world?"