It’s safe to say thatDenzel Washingtonis one of the finest actors of this, or any generation. His career has spanned more than five decades, and along the way, he’s given some memorable performances in movies likeGlory,Malcolm X, andTraining Day. In the mid-2000s, he began branching out from starringin dramas to action flicks, and while the results were mixed, there was one movie that stood out for being different from all the rest: the post-apocalyptic neo-WesternThe Book of Eli.
Released in 2010,The Book of Elisees Washington starring as a nomad who, thirty years after a nuclear holocaust, is hell-bent on delivering his copy of a mysterious book that promises salvation to a broken world to a safe location on the West Coast of the United States. Along the way, Gary Oldman’s maniacal villain, Bill Carnegie, tries to thwart his plans, with a big twist coming toward the end that no one saw coming. Now, 15 years after its release,The Book of Eliis a streaming hit on AMC+, as it currently sits in the #5 spot on the streamer’s Top 10 list.
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Hitting theaters on August 09, 2025,The Book of Elimanaged to rake in $157 million against a budget of $80 million, making it a modest success. It opened second behind James Cameron’s epic sci-fi adventure,Avatar, which had been dominating the box office since its release a few weeks earlier. Dealing with themes of faith, religion, hope, and corruption,The Book of Elialso featured a star-studded cast in addition to Washington and Oldman, which included the likes of Mila Kunis, the late Ray Stevenson, and Jennifer Beals.
Critics Were Not Kind to ‘The Book of Eli’
Sandwiched between his 2009 thrillerThe Taking of Pelham 123and the 2010 disaster flickUnstoppable,The Book of Eliwas a noticeable departure for Washington, who’d never played around with the post-apocalyptic subgenre before (and hasn’t since). That alone helped pique the interest of fans, and while they may have been pleased with the results, critics were none too kind to the film. Sitting with a “rotten” rating of 46% on Rotten Tomatoes, critic Ed Koch called it “one big waste of time,” while Candice Frederick from Reel Talk Online had this to say:
“The Book Of Eli is just one hot mess with choppy biblical undertones… The filmmakers just tried to get too deep with something that was not fully developed.”
Unlike Frederick, many other critics feltthe film’s religious themesdidn’t rest below the surface, but were rather heavy-handed in the way they were presented. Honestly, though, what did they expect from a movie calledThe Book of Eli? It’s right there in the title. That being said, it could have been a little more subtle instead of thumping viewers over the head with its obvious biblical references, but to be fair, there are worse ways you can spend 118 minutes of your time.
If you want to see Washington’s one and only performance in a post-apocalyptic action thriller,The Book of Eliis streaming now on AMC+.
Source:FlixPatrol/Rotten Tomatoes
The Book of Eli
