The Book of Eli - Enjoyable, if predictable

I know that a lot of people absolutely love this film and find it hard to say anything negative about it and I'm certainly not intended to slate it beyond all reason.  However, I've watched it a few time (so it can't be that bad, right?) and always been left with a feeling that, although it's certainly good, judging by the heavyweights in the cast and overall budget, it just could have been much better still.

The ever-excellent Denzil Washington plays a loner who's surviving in one of those 'post apocalyptic worlds' that seem to be common in film and TV shows these days (think the desert-like setting from the 'Mad Max' movies).  He's your typical no-nonsense badass who's been charged with the task of transporting the last copy of a book to a specific location (I'm not sure whether the exact book is supposed to be some sort of secret or not, therefore I won't mention it in case it's technically a 'spoiler,' but when I first watched it, I guessed what the book was pretty quickly).  There is another 'plot point' that I certainly won't mention, as I definitely didn't see it coming - and, just for the record, found it a little 'implausible!'

However, life on the road is fraught with dangers - not just the random thugs wanting to either steal his weapons and water, but a local governor of a town (Gary Oldman) who knows about the book and wants it for himself in order to increase his power.

There's very little I can say about the film that's bad.  Obviously, with Washington and Oldman as the leads you know you're in for some good performances.  However, it just seemed like both actors could do so much better.  Everyone's seen them give numerous great performances, but here they just seem like they're 'phoning it in' a bit.  However, even an average performance from either of them still elevates the film from just another sci-fi survival film to something at least worth a bit of your time.

There are other good names on the cast list - everyone from Mila Kunis to Malcolm McDowell pop up and are all perfectly functional for their role.  I guess that's a word I'd use to describe 'The Book of Eli' - functional.  Despite it's stellar cast list and epic setting, it just comes across to me as another 'Mad Max-esque' movie.  It's certainly not bad and if you're interested in that type of film then I'm sure most people won't feel that they've wasted their time watching it.  

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that