229. The Book of Eli (right click OR click)
Mark and Ian talk about this serviceable Post-Ap. Denzel is kind of wasted and Oldman has a little fun but isn’t what I’d like him to be. Really this just makes me want to watch Beyond Thunderdome again.
email: Futilepodcast@gmail.com
Music:
Tweaker- Years from Now
Bobby DiNiro… lolz, you got me Mark, that was a good one.
I enjoyed this movie much more than you guys apparently did. It’s not a 5 by any stretch but i loved the aesthetic. The mood of the movie was great. I liked the characters, Oldman never disappoints me. He might be a top 5 if i had a list of actors/actresses. He always seems to enjoy his roles, and gives a lot to them. It’s been 15 years or so since i saw any of the Mad Max movies, and so it’s nice to see a post apocalyptic movie again. You were saying it made you want to watch Beyond Thunderdome again because it was better, but that may be why i thought Book of Eli was so good as I was about ten when i saw that and i don’t remember it well. Any way i’m glad you reviewed it.
Oh yea, and Dumbledore as a cannibal- interesting take.
Yeah, Drew. I don’t know what it was about Eli. Parts were good but as I get older I really need my bad guys to have more depth. Oldman sort of did but in the end it unravelled into this religious powerlust. I also probably saw Thunderdome the first time at age 10 or so. I’ve seen it recently and it has an odd optimism that is well temperd by the 80’s. Plus Australian Outback with sets that are wholly original trumps some old west looking sets in my book. I’m sure I’ll be doing a podcast about Thunderdome in some fashion here soon.
The beginning of the movie had me pretty jacked up. There’s a slight trickle downwards after the introduction of Oldman’s character, but the movie really craps the bed after the “cannibal house” scene.
Turns into a moronic action flick.
I wasn’t bothered by the “spiritual” aspect of the story. I thought is was a serviceable premise.
That’s pretty much my breakdown on it too. The first scene with him hunting the dog was shot in a certain way that reminded me of like an episode of Samurai Jack or something. I kind of wished they had done more stuff like that.
The bleached, almost “grindhouse” effect on the film stock was sexy.
The two dimensional characters were not.
Wouldn’t it have been more interesting to see Denzel’s character “question his faith” at some point in the journey? Or as was alluded in the podcast, to add some context to Oldman’s character. I know that sounds hackneyed, but something…anything…backstory…whatever…
Indeed. Yes you have to do some of these things on some level even if they are formulae. I mean the real best stuff does everything you need it to do in a way you won’t expect it to do it. That’s my opinion. Also, thanks for listening and commenting on the podcast Greg. I lived with a guy named Greg back in college, he was pretty cool, you seem to be too.