The Book of Eli (2010)

The Book of Eli (2010)

7/10

Starring

Denzel Washington

Gary Oldman

Mila Kunis

Directed by The Hughes Brothers

We’ve seen it happen many times—critics and audiences are often wrong about a movie at first glance. The Book of Eli is one of those films that I believe will be appreciated much more in the future. While it wasn’t a box office hit upon release, grossing 157milliononan157milliononan80 million budget, it did exceptionally well in DVD and Blu-ray sales and rentals.

Standing out as one of the best post-apocalyptic movies I’ve seen, The Book of Eli is set in a western-style world after a nuclear disaster. The once-beautiful world we know has turned into a wasteland where cannibalism thrives due to food shortages, and people are willing to trade anything for water.

This adaptation of a post-apocalyptic world is one I thoroughly enjoy—not because I look forward to the end of the world, but because the movie injects excitement into the lead character’s journey to deliver a book that could change everything.

The Book of Eli stars Denzel Washington as Eli, a wanderer on a mission driven by his faith in God. His goal is to travel west and deliver a King James Bible to the right people.
To stay focused on his journey, Eli avoids getting involved in the struggles of those around him. His survival is aided by his exceptional fighting skills and mastery of a blade, which he uses to fend off anyone who stands in his way and to hunt for food to stay strong.

Along his path, Eli arrives at a town where he’s forced to stay the night. The town is run by Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a man obsessed with finding a Bible.
Carnegie controls the town’s water supply and everything else, ruling with an iron fist. He also keeps slaves, including Claudia and her daughter Solara (Mila Kunis). A series of events brings Eli and Solara together, and when Carnegie discovers Eli has a Bible, he becomes determined to take it. This forces Eli to flee with Solara as his companion, while Carnegie and his men give chase.

You could argue that one decision in the movie sets everything in motion. If Eli had helped a couple being attacked by hoodlums instead of looking the other way, the entire story might have unfolded differently. But that thread, I believe, was left there to show the consequences of turning a blind eye.

The movie doesn’t stop delivering surprises until the very end. Just when you think it’s over or you’ve figured out what’s coming next, get ready for some jaw-dropping moments that will leave you saying, “WTF?”

Knowing (2009)

Knowing (2009)

6/10

Starring

Nicolas Cage

Rose Byrne

Directed by Alex Proyas

Knowing doesn’t (or at least I want to believe it didn’t try to) present scientific facts as accurately as it claims. I also have some criticism about the direction the filmmakers chose for this movie. It’s multi-directional, which can make it hard for viewers to stay engaged. The movie starts on a scientific path, shifts to predicting the future, then tries to change the future, and finally settles on an otherworldly experience for a select few.
While all these directions might seem plausible, they can leave you as confused as the lead character, who’s desperately trying to make sense of the numbers before him. I for one think the movie would have been better focusing on one path, than trying to touch all possible movie categories.

The plot revolves around numbers, dates, and GPS coordinates of events that have happened—or will happen. These numbers fall into the hands of Professor John Koestler (Nicolas Cage), an astrophysicist, when he takes his son to school for the opening of a time capsule buried exactly fifty years ago.
The capsule contains letters written by students from five decades earlier, buried by their teacher. She returns to open the capsule and distributes the letters to the current students, so they can see what their predecessors left behind.

Caleb (John’s son) receives a letter from a girl named Lucinda, filled with numbers, while his classmates get letters with drawings. Caleb takes the list of numbers home, and after some analysis, John discovers that the numbers correspond to dates, death tolls, and locations of tragic events—many of which have already occurred. He later realizes that some of the numbers are coordinates for future disasters.

John tracks down the daughter of the girl who wrote the numbers (after learning that Lucinda has passed away) and questions her about her mother’s ability to predict the future with such accuracy.
She helps him see that some of the numbers were written in mirror image, adding another layer to the mystery.

All of this leads John to uncover an impending catastrophic event. Along the way, he has to deal with mysterious men who keep appearing around his son, always managing to evade him whenever he gives chase.

Knowing did well at the box office and was one of Nicolas Cage’s last major hits. That said, the movie’s multi-directional approach with multiple subplots might be off-putting for viewers who prefer a more straightforward narrative.

The Stepford Wives (1975)

The Stepford Wives (1975)

7/10

Starring

Katharine Ross

Paula Prentiss

Peter Masterson

Directed by Brayn Forbes

My first taste of Ira Levin’s 1972 book The Stepford Wives was the 2004 remake starring Nicole Kidman and Matthew Broderick. That version always made me feel like it danced to the same tune as the cult classic original. But that’s not the case—the 1975 film is more of a thriller (though it’s often labeled a thriller/horror, there’s nothing particularly horrific about it).
The movie strikes a somber tone as it unfolds, taking a very different direction than the comedic 2004 remake. For what it’s worth, it’s a fine film, it is a better watch than the remake and while the remake tries to work towards a happy ending, this movie just focuses on the thrill.

The story follows Joanna Eberhart (Katharine Ross), a young wife and photographer who moves with her husband, Walter (Peter Masterson), and their two children from New York City to the Connecticut suburb of Stepford.
Joanna quickly feels isolated, unable to understand why the women in town seem so disconnected and unrelatable.

Her disappointment grows when Walter decides to join an all-male club. She’s confused by his emotional reaction after his first visit—he comes home tearful, repeatedly declaring his love for her.

Joanna eventually befriends Bobbie, another free-spirited woman who also finds the behavior of Stepford’s women strange. Together, they decide to form an all-women’s club, inviting the town’s women to gossip and socialize. However, only one woman, Charmaine, shows genuine interest. The others join but only discuss housework and chores.

Charmaine opens up about her husband’s lack of affection and shares plans for an upcoming trip. But when she returns from the trip, she’s changed. She becomes a devoted wife, firing her maid, cleaning her house obsessively, and even destroying her beloved tennis court.
Joanna and Bobbie grow suspicious, fearing something in the environment is causing the women’s odd behavior. They can’t understand why Charmaine, once loud, happy, and carefree, has become as submissive and bland as the other wives.

Their investigation doesn’t get them far, other than uncovering that the women of Stepford were once high-achieving, independent individuals.

Something is clearly wrong with the town, and Joanna and Bobbie feel an urgent need to get their families out.

The Stepford Wives (1975) is very different from the 2004 remake and is worth watching. While many sequels and the remake were made after this film, they’ve all received poor ratings in comparison.