Escape to the Movies: Book of Eli

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Nomanslander

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Sephiroth_deus said:
Man this crap is STILL going on. Seriously Bob, I would think you would know enough about flamewars not to participate. They always get personal and the only way they ever die is if you ignore them. Take a page from Yahtzee's playbook and ignore the sheep.
Plus these posters are cannibals...they see a reviewer on this site come down to their level and they'll be all over him like flies on shit.

Lord knows how frenzied it would get if Yahtzee was to try and pull something like this considering the amount of haters he's accumulated in his time on this site as a game critic...:p
 

MovieBob

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Sephiroth_deus said:
Seriously Bob, I would think you would know enough about flamewars not to participate.
Nah, I'm having fun ;)

I decided early on in this venture that I was going to engage the audience on this show, and I can't very well turn tail just because THIS time the reaction is mostly negative. You learn from criticism, one way or another.

fozzy360 said:
but many on here are simply trying to understand why you gave Avatar such a glowing review when technically it's just as cliched as Book of Eli
Alright. I still really, REALLY on-principle reject the idea of doing the "how can you like X but not Y?" thing with two movies that have absolutely nothing substantial in common other than the fact that one of them has entered the "it's popular so it's cool to hate it" phase... but okay, I'll bite.

From where I sit, "Avatar" simply isn't as cliche'd as "Eli." They're both telling well-worn stories, but the key is in the details: "Eli" takes it's well-worn story, adds the most obvious/overused macguffin possible, a set of stock characters we've seen hundreds of times before, not a single genuinely inventive action sequence and the same cinematography and art-design used in every other film in it's genre. "Avatar," on the other hand, plants it's well-worn story in a context (hell, a WORLD) that I've never seen on film before, fills it tech and biology that's either never been seen before (pretty much everything on Pandora) or never been realized as well before (the mech-suits) and even throws in curveballs like the ecosystem-as-bio-internet concept that are pretty damn intriguing in their own right.

Plus...Tank-Girl? Really?
"Tank Girl" is a better movie than "Eli," however well-intentioned the former may be. It's more fun, the animated-transitions are a genuinely novel budget-busting technique, the half-man/half-kangaroo guys are properly-absurd and Lori Petty plants one on Naomi Watts - what's not to love? ;) (Also better post-end-of-world movies than Eli: Steel Dawn, Demolition Man, Blood of Heroes, Lunar Cop, Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn, Six-String Samurai, Surf Nazis Must Die.)

DrkStar Cion said:
and also, when you blatantly throw your superior knowledge of atheism around and even go so far as to screw at a film for having a religious motif you're bound to annoy people.
I don't know that I've ever claimed to have much knowledge of atheism, certainly not any sort of "superior" knowledge. I mean, I've never studied it all that much. For that matter, I'm also fairly certain I've never "screwed at" a movie... though once I find out how you do such a thing, I'm definately going to give it a try ;)

Unless, of course, you meant to say "throw around the superior knowledge of [my] atheism," in which case I cheerfully invite you to find the point in this piece wherein I declared myself to be an atheist ;)

Incidentally, here's a GOOD version of "Book of Eli," telling the same basic story and message a thousand times better and more-powerfully in under 9 minutes back in 1939: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8stkqssLYc

(seriously, give it a watch. Easily one of the greatest animated cartoon achievements of all time.)
 

zjspeed

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Bob,

I can see where you're coming from, but I don't think the movie takes quite as strong a pro-religion stance as you present.

The Bible itself served only as a MacGuffin. It was a valuable object to both Eli and to Carnegie. And not really much more. The movie didn't actually introduce God as a character.

SPOILERS:

Think of it this way: One of the final scenes showed the Holy Bible being shelved alongside the Quran, Torah, and other relics in a museum devoted to archiving the past.

I enjoyed it.

That said, the plot was weak. It's not believable that only one or even only a few Bibles would remain on Earth. It's a very popular book.

And how was that supposed to have gone down? Almost everyone was killed in a war. The few survivors are spread across the world and all out of communication from each other. Everyone then spontaneously decided to go on a book-burning rampage and systematically destroy all Bibles? Every home, church, library, bookstore, motel, etc.? How did THAT message spread to the people? Who would have considered it a priority?
 

jabrwock

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zjspeed said:
Everyone then spontaneously decided to go on a book-burning rampage and systematically destroy all Bibles? Every home, church, library, bookstore, motel, etc.? How did THAT message spread to the people? Who would have considered it a priority?
Hehe, I can see the scene now. Thousands of people combing hotel wreckages, desperate to find and destroy every last Gideon bible... ;)

Yeah, seems like it wouldn't really be a priority in a post-apocalypse. "Hey, should we set up some defenses against the scavengers from the wastelands? Nah, let's find all the bibles and burn them."
 

Saarai-fan

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I had a feeling that this would be a boring movie. Heck, I think God and Jesus would say it's a boring movie, if not say it lacks a deep story. And I'm saying all that having grown up as a christian. Granted, it's actors and actresses are great choices, but they should of added more plot twists and more orginality in this another "post-apocalyptic Earth movie."
 

Badassassin

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MovieBob said:
PlasticLion said:
A lot of people disagree with you. Why is that such a bad thing? Why did you just talk about Avatar? Was that the biggest wrong you saw, the comparison? Or was everyone else too right to talk to? Questions are always worth asking.
I prefer to be disagreed with, it makes things more interesting. The "wow" is over the fact that A.) this has turned psuedo-"personal" so rapidly and B.) that it's in reaction to THIS movie. I mean, passionate about movies - I get that. But this? Really? A sub-"Tank Girl" generic post-nuke actioner plopped into the January dead-zone is worth accusatory ranting and namecalling? Yeah, that's a little surprising to me.

Also, for what it's worth, "you are a bigot" isn't a question ;)
well i don't think people are getting mad because it was this movie... it was the way you reviewed it that was condescending and downright rude to christians.
plus the way you blew THAT... that while this movie had many other cliches and bad plotting... out of proportion made it look like that was exactly what you wanted to do
 

sargeant15

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MovieBob said:
fozzy360 said:
but many on here are simply trying to understand why you gave Avatar such a glowing review when technically it's just as cliched as Book of Eli
Alright. I still really, REALLY on-principle reject the idea of doing the "how can you like X but not Y?" thing with two movies that have absolutely nothing substantial in common other than the fact that one of them has entered the "it's popular so it's cool to hate it" phase... but okay, I'll bite.

From where I sit, "Avatar" simply isn't as cliche'd as "Eli." They're both telling well-worn stories, but the key is in the details: "Eli" takes it's well-worn story, adds the most obvious/overused macguffin possible, a set of stock characters we've seen hundreds of times before, not a single genuinely inventive action sequence and the same cinematography and art-design used in every other film in it's genre. "Avatar," on the other hand, plants it's well-worn story in a context (hell, a WORLD) that I've never seen on film before, fills it tech and biology that's either never been seen before (pretty much everything on Pandora) or never been realized as well before (the mech-suits) and even throws in curveballs like the ecosystem-as-bio-internet concept that are pretty damn intriguing in their own right.

Plus...Tank-Girl? Really?
"Tank Girl" is a better movie than "Eli," however well-intentioned the former may be. It's more fun, the animated-transitions are a genuinely novel budget-busting technique, the half-man/half-kangaroo guys are properly-absurd and Lori Petty plants one on Naomi Watts - what's not to love? ;) (Also better post-end-of-world movies than Eli: Steel Dawn, Demolition Man, Blood of Heroes, Lunar Cop, Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn, Six-String Samurai, Surf Nazis Must Die.)
So, what you're saying is that since James Cameron made a world around the cliched plot it is a better movie? That is ridiculous to me. Also, the mech-suits, aren't original at all. Matrix Revolutions, anyone?

Sure, Tank Girl might be more fun than Eli, but does that make it an overall better movie?
 

Hunde Des Krieg

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sargeant15 said:
MovieBob said:
fozzy360 said:
but many on here are simply trying to understand why you gave Avatar such a glowing review when technically it's just as cliched as Book of Eli
Alright. I still really, REALLY on-principle reject the idea of doing the "how can you like X but not Y?" thing with two movies that have absolutely nothing substantial in common other than the fact that one of them has entered the "it's popular so it's cool to hate it" phase... but okay, I'll bite.

From where I sit, "Avatar" simply isn't as cliche'd as "Eli." They're both telling well-worn stories, but the key is in the details: "Eli" takes it's well-worn story, adds the most obvious/overused macguffin possible, a set of stock characters we've seen hundreds of times before, not a single genuinely inventive action sequence and the same cinematography and art-design used in every other film in it's genre. "Avatar," on the other hand, plants it's well-worn story in a context (hell, a WORLD) that I've never seen on film before, fills it tech and biology that's either never been seen before (pretty much everything on Pandora) or never been realized as well before (the mech-suits) and even throws in curveballs like the ecosystem-as-bio-internet concept that are pretty damn intriguing in their own right.

Plus...Tank-Girl? Really?
"Tank Girl" is a better movie than "Eli," however well-intentioned the former may be. It's more fun, the animated-transitions are a genuinely novel budget-busting technique, the half-man/half-kangaroo guys are properly-absurd and Lori Petty plants one on Naomi Watts - what's not to love? ;) (Also better post-end-of-world movies than Eli: Steel Dawn, Demolition Man, Blood of Heroes, Lunar Cop, Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn, Six-String Samurai, Surf Nazis Must Die.)
So, what you're saying is that since James Cameron made a world around the cliched plot it is a better movie? That is ridiculous to me. Also, the mech-suits, aren't original at all. Matrix Revolutions, anyone?

Sure, Tank Girl might be more fun than Eli, but does that make it an overall better movie?
There have been dozens of films games and novels that used mechs before Matrix, and hell Cameron even used one in aliens.
 

solidstatemind

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Nov 9, 2008
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Can someone do me a favor?

I keep hearing how the plot of 'Eli' has been done so often before. And yet, no one provides an example... well, outside of 'Zardoz', which is more than a little ludicrous since it was a b-movie from 25 years ago.

Seriously, can I get a couple of examples where this is a retread? Because frankly, it may not have been the most clever plot imaginable, it certainly was better than much of the rehashed tripe I see the studios producing these days. And while I can think of 'quest' movies, I can't seem to recall one in which the protagonist was tasked with carrying a holy book across a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

And Bob, I reiterate the points that I made earlier: Trite or not, MacGuffin or not, rehashed or not, cliched or not, your review condemned the movie based solely upon that single element, with barely a sentence given to the other elements upon which I feel should be included when judging a movie. (For the record, I felt comfortable in thinking that you concurred, because your previous reviews also seemed to avoid focusing on one single aspect of a movie when judging it.)

And PS: Tank Girl was shit. Irredeemable. There was one good line in the entire movie: "that's DRACULA, fool!"
 

jabrwock

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solidstatemind said:
Can someone do me a favor?

I keep hearing how the plot of 'Eli' has been done so often before. And yet, no one provides an example... well, outside of 'Zardoz', which is more than a little ludicrous since it was a b-movie from 25 years ago.
Zardoz is the specific example of "holy book being carried through the wastelands". But "walking through the dystopian wastelands doing something" is not new, it's nearly it's own genre...

Transporting the mail. Oil. Fresh water. The last pregnant woman. A water chip. Or all the ones where it's just "surviving the wastelands while travelling", etc.
 

allnorweiganwood

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This Bob guy cracks me up. The Book of Eli was twice as good as Daybreakers and half as silly. When I saw daybreakers, I could still see the glistening saliva shine off the tip of its perverbial penis from Bob, and was never impressed. Mila Kunis is one of the most squeaky, whiny, ingeniuine, self entitled people I've ever had the pleasure of having under my skin in the movies. "Under-used" says Bob? Thank the maker says I! I personally think she's over used. Totally hilarious in that 70's show. Thats. About. It. See this movie for some pretty awesome fight scenes, and a slightly interesting twist at the end. Story: gay. Action: good. Gary Oldman yelling at people: Awesome. Go in with that mentality and you'll be set.
 

MikeN

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MovieBob said:
From where I sit, "Avatar" simply isn't as cliche'd as "Eli." They're both telling well-worn stories, but the key is in the details: "Eli" takes it's well-worn story, adds the most obvious/overused macguffin possible
Obvious/over-used macguffin? Really?
I kept waiting for the moment to reveal that the book actually contained something else.The fact that the book was exactly as it appeared was a surprise for me. If they had hidden something in the book as you suggested like a key/cure/map whatever I would have thought that was too obvious/over-used.
 

Quad08

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Saw the movie, and enjoyed it.

The way MovieBob talks about this movie, you'd think the entire thing was the promotion of religion...which I didn't find at all. Sure it was an underlying tone but overall, its still one of the best apocalypse movies I've seen come out in recent years.
 

jabrwock

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Found this on "New York Entertainment" [http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/01/book_of_eli_hughes_brothers_in.html]

Hughes Brothers: "With our movie, I think it was important that that sacred MacGuffin be the Bible, because it is the biggest-selling book of all time. That's the biggest one, the most, for lack of a better word, commercial one. The most accessible one."
0_o
 

300lb. Samoan

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Just saw this the other night against Bob's advice, enjoyed it well enough but could easily see why it was marked for a January release. Denzel Washington is great in the movie, so is Gary Oldman, Milas Kunis could have been better but she is so poorly directed that none of her delivery comes off appropriately. And the scenes of drama between her, her mother and Gary Oldman are so poorly written and forced it was miserable to watch. Not even interestingly shot. Flat movie full of flat characters played by A-list actors. Definitely worth a visit on dollar night, but not the $10 I just paid (also wasted my money on popcorn and a coke, so a 20 dollar visit to see this stinker.)
 

300lb. Samoan

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jabrwock said:
Found this on "New York Entertainment" [http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/01/book_of_eli_hughes_brothers_in.html]

Hughes Brothers: "With our movie, I think it was important that that sacred MacGuffin be the Bible, because it is the biggest-selling book of all time. That's the biggest one, the most, for lack of a better word, commercial one. The most accessible one."
0_o
Wow. Just, fucking, wow. "We wanted our pointless plot device to seem as important as possible, so we picked the most sacred of all books because it happens to be the best selling of all time and, ya know, people respond to that." Seems like they didn't even try on this hunk of junk.
 

PlasticLion

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Why am I still doing this?

MovieBob said:
Also, for what it's worth, "you are a bigot" isn't a question ;)
You're not an idiot either. I said that somewhere in this mess.

But if someone said to me "you are a bigot" I would immediately ask myself, "Am I?" "If I'm not, what made him think that?" "Can I say that differently so no one thinks I'm a bigot?"

Anyway it's SPOILER time.

You said earlier that Eli was blind, the Bible was braille, he memorized it to have someone else transcribe it, and the actual paper book was useless. However Claudia was also blind and though she claimed she could not remember how to read she might have been lying. Eli knew this, so keeping the actual book away from Carnegie, who wanted to use it for his own purposes, wasn't pointless.

Ugh, I'm gonna hate myself in the morning. Stop hesitating and click Post.
 

Endocrom

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ColdStorage said:
Jaranja said:
ColdStorage said:
I'm glad Mila Kunis isn't overused in Hollywood, otherwise she might turn into Megan Fox, and that would be a tragedy.
Except she's way hotter than Megan Fox and she can act.
She's also the voice of


My friends were shocked at that one, they actually thought the voice of Meg was a uggo.
That reminds me, did anybody else notice that nobody hated Meg when she was voiced by Lacey Chabert. I myself am no fan of Mila but that's still something to ponder.