The Hughes Brothers (“Menace II Society”) finally return after an almost nine-year absence with “The Book Of Eli,” starring Denzel Washington and Mila Kunis (and Tom Waits). What an odd pairing, huh? Their last feature-length film was 2001’s highly dubious, “From Hell,” starring Johnny Depp and adapted from an Alan Moore comic (essentially another retelling of the Jack The Ripper murders).
Coincidentally, a not entirely script review on Script Shadow was taken down today by Warner Bros. Perhaps they’re nervous because the trailer was released today?
Though it’s an apocalyptic film the movie is “stylistically more like a Western in tone, ” Albert Hughes told EW in an interview that’s not online (hence our scan here). Except that there are, “no cars, no horses, no animals at all… and no assless chaps.” OK, these guys really have a weird perception of what constitutes a Western. It sort of looks like the mainstream version of “The Road,” with more guns and general kick-assness, which is fortunate for TWC and Dimension films because their arty, Cormac McCarthy picture will come out in the fall and ‘Eli’ won’t hit theaters until 2010.It also looks generally idiotic and lowest common denominator which is why its release date is tellingly January 15, 2010, i.e. dumping ground season. At best they’re hoping it’s a “Taken,” like box-office surprise, but the expectations are surely not high critically. It’s a bit of a shame as these brothers had promise, but this looks genuinely run-of-the-mill with probably semi-interesting cinematography.
What happened to the Hughes Brothers? Why were they gone from the screen for so long? “We took a twin sabbatical,” Allen told the L.A. Times in a recent interview. Wait, is that code for they had a sibling falling out? Not exactly, but it sounds like there was some tension there. Apparently there were issues over girlfriends, but no single event triggered their time off from one another. “It got blown out of proportion,” he said, annoyed. “Someone told me that [my brother and I] got in a fistfight. I heard all these crazy rumors, and it just got worse and worse and worse.” BTW, they’ll surely have a career, but this might be the end of the Hughes Brothers for us, i.e., they look like they’re falling into the same action schlock territory that befell John Singleton, another director we no longer care for.
why does this look so bad?? im with you on the telling january release date, but honestly, you fucks need to loosen your belt buckles.
I think this looks interesting actually. Denzel Washington is one of our greatest living actors, so it's got that going for it.
greatest living actors of playing the same character in every movie for the past 10 years.
I think there's a rather huge difference between his characters in "The Hurricane," "The Manchurian Candidate," and for example, "Man On Fire." He's not a chameleon like, say Depp, but he's not trying to be – he's just an excellent and consistent actor who brings emotional depth to nearly every character he plays. I'll fight anyone about Denzel.
i think you're grossly overestimating Denzel, the paycheck casher. He's a great actor when he wants to be and when the material is good, but he's attracted to a lot of sub-par movies.
I don't really disagree with you there. He does some sub-par movies fore sure, but a lot of really good actors do. Just look at old Meryl, who we were just chatting about, I mean, I think she's a fantastic actress when she wants to be, but she did "Mama Mia!" and now we have this contemptible looking "Julie & Julia" to contend with soon. And then there's "The Hours"…
Also, I like a lot of Denzel you don't (i.e. all the Tony Scott collabs), and I can't remember how you feel about 'Manchurian,' but as you know I'm pretty wild about it.
Stack up all of Streep's Oscar nominations and take away say, half of them, and that's still pretty strong evidence that Denzel has a long way to go in terms of matching her career.
(obviously the academy isn't everything, but i bet if you look at even 6 of them you see 6 classic performances).
This and Daybreakers (Jan 8) both look like they could be fun, but could also be crap. I've been tricked with these types of films before (Constantine), so I'm not gonna to think too much about it.
One plus though is Gary Oldman. How many Oscars has this guy gotten, compared to how many classic performances he's churned out?
It's a teaser. They teased things. Hard to judge the movie based on this.
"January 15, 2010"
I'm calling it – Warners will be attaching the Inception trailer to this. Geeks love geek bait.
The last two MLK weekend number ones have had grosses that were higher than the film's budget – a terrible duo of films called Cloverfield and Paul Blart: Mall Cop. I would compare this to those, not Taken, which did not come out that weekend.
Knowing your taste, you probably were soooo looking fwd to Cloverfield, Alex. 😉
I couldn't quite articulate it before, but now it's hit me. This looks like a Wesley Snipes modern action B-movie. The type of stuff that's almost straight to DVD quality, but spends a few weeks in theaters and does fairly well regardless.
I don't know…to me, this looks like another lone survivor, post apocolyptic sci fi film starring a black actor (Will Smith), that made 256 million in the US alone. But that's just what I see.
man, please don't tell me you thought I Am Legend was good, cause I'll be really sad.
(who cares what it made, no?)
No no, I didn't think "I Am Legend" was good. I guess we're getting our signals crossed. All I'm saying is I really don't get the Jan 15th release date. To me, this could be pumped up to a big summer blockbuster film. My "I Am Legend" comparison was just to show that. I just don't think it's B class Wesley Snipes stuff. It'll probabaly be crap, but isn't that what most summer blockbusters are too?
And nobody's mentioned "The Postman"…I mean do we really need another film like this?
It DOES look a lot like Wesley Snipes' unreleased "Gallowalker."