The Book of Eli

Director: Hughes Bros.

Cast: Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis, Toma Waits, Michael Gambon

Year: 2009

Genre: Sci-Fi / Action

Rating:

Cinema-Reader – 6.8

IMDB – 7.6

FilmAffinity – N/A

(click picture for Trailer)

Cinema-Reader Synopsis:

Within an apocalyptic future after a world wide war that has devastated the planet making core resources just essentials for surviving, a single man is on a trip heading west carrying with a priceless object, a book. The book of the books: the Holy Bible.

After the book was deemed as one of the triggers that caused the ultimate war on earth; Eli (Denzel Washington), its bearer, will protect what is believed to be the very last copy with his life if necessary and no thoughts of handling over to anyone else, above all to Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a self named governor of an small town that rules it with heavy hammer and willing to use the book as a weapon in order to spread out his ownership among the area.

Cinema-Reader Review:

With an atmosphere that evokes the pure style of the Sci-Fi classic Mad Max, the film is a well made action movie with a solid but not brilliant script.

Besides all factors can point out straight to this (genre, contest and plot), the movie doesn’t fall into the ease of the usage of X effects, overused in nowadays movies without measure.

This is some I am grateful of, due to is being some years since industry lost the north when talking of visual effects in action movie. Thus, and according my meek opinion, the point of actions movies and what makes me enjoy them might be the story; developing afterwards the effects around it and not in the other way round.

Despite this plus, something is missed out on the film.

Just the reliable pair heading the cast (even though if Oldman is far away from his always remembered performance of a corrupted cop in Leon) saves the movie in a way.

Sherlock Holmes

Director: Guy Ritchie

Cast: Robert Downey Jr. Jude Law, Rachel McAdams, Mark Strong

Year: 2009

Genre: Adventure / Action

Rating:

Cinema-Reader – 7.5

IMDB – 7.7

FilmAffinity – 6.9

(click picture for Trailer)

Cinema-Reader Synopsis:

Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) is back on the business.

Now, and always alongside his loyal mate Dr. Watson (Jude Law), is determined to sort out another challenging mystery. In this case, what at a first sight seems the resurrection among the death of Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong), a mysterious black wizard who has threatened the British Crown and the order established on the Victorian London.

Cinema-Reader Review:

New adaptation of the adventures devised by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle but through a different looking glass, as now Holmes jumps around and punches as a real nowadays hero.

It’s certain that Ritchie has given his very own personal expression onto this 21st century version of one of the most famous detectives of all time.

Action scenes shot with Ritchie’s personal touch that evokes his finest pieces (Snatch and Lock, Stock and two smoking barrels) and makes the movie run as fast as the viewer entertain himself with the visual usage of the camera as well as light and darkness.
Movie fulfils with its primary outcome: Entertain.

The Road

Director: John Hillcoat

Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Robert Duvall, Guy Pearce

Year: 2009

Genre: Drama

Rating:

Cinema-Reader – 7.9
IMDB – 8.0

FilmAffinity – 7.3

(click picture for Trailer)

Cinema-Reader Synopsis:

Life on earth is turning out for an unknown event as trees are about to die and water is corrupted. Food is limited if not vanished and last men standing have turn into cannibalism.

Under these apocalyptic circumstances, a man struggling with a rare disease (Viggo Mortensen) and his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) are on a trip across an overwhelmed landscape heading the south with no food, a gun with two bullets, the memories of a former life and the hope of finding a future on the south coast; running away from cannibals and their very own fears.


Cinema-Reader Review:

Based on the book by the Pulitzer winner Cormac McCarthy (also responsible of No Country for old man), this post apocalyptic story tells the desperate trip of a man and his son towards the unknown.
The timeless context in which the plot is developing, no explanation about what caused the earth is about to collapse, makes a bit more disturbing , involving the viewer in a way that makes you feel in the boots of the 2 travelers, as you know as much as they know about that’s next; absolutely nothing.

Viggo Mortensen plays stunningly the role of the protective father who struggles to keep his son alive within a devastated world, along a cast of well-known names but however unacknowledged within the film as the great Robert Duvall.