By | Published November 27, 2009

Here’s something I never would have envisioned – Denzel Washington as a martial arts-trained badass traipsing through a post-apocalyptic American landscape. Let me put it another way. Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman and the always in-demand martial arts movie fighter and capoeira artist Lateef Crowder (THE PROTECTOR) are in the same movie that has stunt and fight work and training overseen by Jeff Imada (THE BOURNE UKTIMATUM) and highly respected martial arts master and former Bruce Lee student Dan Inosanto. I don’t need a trailer to tell me that the fighting action in THE BOOK OF ELI is going to rock but we have one anyone.

Scripted by Gary Whitta and directed by brothers Albert and Allen Hughes (DEAD PRESIDENTS, FROM HELL), THE BOOK OF ELI stars Washington as a lone man who fights his way across America in a post-apocalyptic future in order to protect the secrets to saving humankind.

Despite having played too many familiar roles in the past, Washington remains one of my favorite dramatic actors and to see him continuing to build up his stock as an action lead since starring in films like THE HURRICANE and MAN ON FIRE, is heartening. I’m seeing in Washington a welcome convergence of an elder dramatic actor capable of carrying a blockbuster release blindfolded while still possessing the ability to sell himself as a physically imposing figure. There are only a handful of actors right now capable of doing this and I would count Liam Neeson, Anthony Wong, Simon Yam, and Ahn Sung-kee among them.

In addition to the action, I’m intrigued by the rundown world that Whitta has created. Maybe I have been playing too many video games but it looks awfully similar to Bethesda’s action RPG FALLOUT 3. By the end of the trailer I was half-expecting Washington to step out in power armor.

The good news is that THE BOOK OF ELI is heading to theaters on January 15, 2010 so we won’t have to wait long to see what the Hughes brothers, along with Imada and Inosanto, have cooked up.

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  • LoBo

    Could be good. Liam Nesson showed he could fight very well in Taken, so Denzel could also do that. They seem to be the same age.

  • Johnny Devlin

    Reminds me a little bit of “The Road Warrior” with more guns and hand-to-hand but frwer car chases. If it's 75% as well done as that movie, it'll be worth seeing. Pretty tired of grungy “futures” though; do they all have to look that way?

  • SolidRonin

    A Martail Artist trying the hell-scape of a post apocalyptic world reminds you of FALLOUT 3? The first that that entered my mind was

    “YOU WA SHOCK!”

  • reefer

    I wonder if we should worry about the January 15th release date? Is it a sign of a lack of confidence in the project that it doesn't have a stronger release date? Just curious.

    Side note: Man On Fire was an excellent film. Washington and especially Dakota Fanning were amazing.

  • http://trailers-watch.com/ Jack Dillinger

    I have to say that the movie seems to have a lot of potential. Maybe I'm just a silent Denzel fan, but still the trailer rocks. Watched it here: http://trailers-watch.com/the-book-of-eli/

  • http://trailers-watch.com/ Jack Dillinger

    I have to say that the movie seems to have a lot of potential. Maybe I'm just a silent Denzel fan, but still the trailer rocks. Watched it here: http://trailers-watch.com/the-book-of-eli/