Book of Eli (2010)

Stop if you’ve heard this one before: A man walks silently through the remainder of an apocalyptic future landscape. Yes, “The Book of Eli” again goes where many films -- from “Mad Max” to “The Road” -- have gone before, but it jumps from the pack with an interesting – albeit failed – take on the double-edged sword of religion, particularly Christianity. Props for trying, anyway. Eli (Denzel Washington) has wondered like Moses for decades, carrying a book that was given to him by God. (Hint: It ain’t “The DaVinci Code.”) When the despot mayor (Gary Oldman) of a hellish town learns of Eli’s hidden treasure, it’s all out hunt and grab. The man knows religion is a deadlier weapon than all the guns and bombs ever made. The Hughes Brothers directed several great films – “Menace II Society” and “From Hell” – and they tackle big themes here. But they repeatedly break the 8th Commandment, with “Children of Men” being fleeced the most. The overblown video game violence and a miscast Mila Kunis (a great actress, especially in “Black Swan”) as a bad-ass tough companion also nuke the subtle, dark humor and genuine surprises. C+

P.S. The "+" is for a short, LOL riotous spoof of “Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," starring two of Harry Potter's adult pals.

The Road (2009)

Some books are just not filmable, and yet they get the Hollywood treatment anyway. I thought Cormac McCarthy’s spectacular novel “The Road” fit the profile: It’s a devastatingly bleak story about the end of civilization, a dying father who loves his son so much he’s willing to kill him, and the light – “the fire,” it is written – that the child holds within him. Biblical themes explode on the page, and to this reader’s eyes, define the book. The film version is surprisingly good, but soul-sucking bleak, with no saving grace from McCarthy’s prose to pull us through the muck and mire. Muck and mire and ash abound as an unnamed father (Viggo Mortensen) and son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) travel through a dead America toward the Atlantic Ocean. They flee cannibals and thieves, while finding the occasional straggler to help. It is the boy who always wants to help for the father trusts no one. Director John Hillcoat (“The Proposition”) paints a vision of hell on earth like no other I’ve seen before, and the acting is shockingly realistic, with Mortensen looking starved, ragged and near-dead. If the last scene is a bit disjointed, sudden and weirdly happy, it is because what is written cannot always be shown. It simply must be read. And only read. B+