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Gary Oldman holds a lot of sway for me. He's one of my favorite actors, and as such, I have put up with a lot of bad movies just to see whatever brilliance he might perform. He has been a thickly-accented villain in a futuristic world, Lee Harvey Oswald, Dracula, Lieutenant Gordon, a white guy who wants to be black, a Russian hijacker on Air Force One, a two-faced cop, and Beethoven. (On a side-note, I found this handy-dandy list on Amazon that features the many accents of Gary Oldman, should you ever want to experience more of them.) Not all of his movies are great, but his presence usually yields more credibility to a movie for me. Stick with me here; there is a point.

Denzel Washington also holds a lot of sway for me. I try to sway away (yes!) from his movies. I know he has won an Oscar and has been nominated for others, but there's something so slimy about him. Doesn't anyone else see it? He comes across as so arrogant and self-righteous, or at least he seems to be attracted to roles that accentuate that quality in him. And if he's not self-righteous, he's more of a martyr, which makes him annoyingly righteous. At any rate, in most of his movies, I don't see the character - I see Denzel. One day, when Ric and I heard the song, "Don't Bogart That Joint" and decided it wasn't fair that such negative connotations would be attached to such a great actor when there are actors like Denzel around. So we adopted a habit of substituting his name for Bogart's. Example: "Don't Denzel the peanut butter M&Ms; I'd like to eat some of them too."

Anyway, when presented with the dilemma of a movie that starred both Gary Oldman and Denzel Washington, Ric and I both screamed (I love him for sharing my sentiments). We put off the movie for the cheap theater. Once it got there, we put it off even more. Apparently, out dislike of Denzel was stronger than our love of Oldman - who knew? But eventually, an evening with friends made the decision for me, and I quietly acquiesced when The Book of Eli was the chosen entertainment (and I love my friends for apologizing to me).

All that to eventually say that this is possibly the best Denzel movie out there. Thankfully, he walks around by himself a lot, so he hardly has any lines at all. He is, dare I say, subtle. I didn't think he had it in him.

His character is traveling in a post-apocalyptic world down a road. Before you say that this sounds too much like The Road, his precious cargo is not his son - it's a book with the power to save mankind, and apparently it's the only one left in existence. He's on a mission to reach a place where he can pass it on so that it is preserved, and Gary Oldman's character wants to steal it from him because he recognizes its power and wants it for himself. Together with a young girl, he battles against those who would steal the book from him and continues down the road toward his final destination.

I like the idea behind this movie a lot. As I've heard said, it's sort of like a Pilgrim's Progress. There's a straight path, and every time you leave the path, you are faced with danger, temptation, and death. There are a lot of parallels and insights one can draw to the plot, but unfortunately, the way the movie plays out feels a bit too familiar to me. I've already seen The Road, I am Legend, 28 Days (and Weeks) Later, and many other worlds like this, so I was hoping for a fresher take on a post-apocalyptic world.

As for the final scenes, I'm not sure if I was supposed to be surprised by them; I wasn't. That's not necessarily bad. I actually liked the closing scenes and concepts for the most part. I think I was expecting a more climactic resolution based on what other people told me about the movie. But that's okay. It's like taking a nap after a long journey - it's not very exciting, but it feels right.

While some reviews claimed that Oldman overplayed his role, I'm not sure I agree. Have they seen The Fifth Element or True Romance? Hahaha. Well, at any rate, I thought he was very even in his role. His character, Carnegie, wanted the book for evil, but revered the book for its good powers. The respect for what he sought was a nice touch to his character and made him a little less one-dimensional.

Overall, I was surprised to find the movie wasn't just a loud action flick, and that's a good thing. It didn't break out in any new areas ('though I think it had the potential to do so), but was solid enough, and I think I could potentially appreciate it more with repeat viewings. So there. Is that a surprising review from a Denzel hater?