The Book of Eli

"Some mordant comic touches would have been welcome throughout the picture, which has a somber tone that suffers a bit from lack of modulation and nuance."

"For all its knife scraps, shoot-outs, big bangs and fisticuffs, Denzel’s latest is a sluggish affair weighed down by its lofty themes. It also comes with a preposterous twist and a paying-the-rent performance from Oldman that’s pure cured ham."

"The movie keeps you watching and generally engaged."

"The film looks and feels good, and Washington's performance is the more uncanny the more we think back over it. The ending is "flawed," as we critics like to say, but it's so magnificently, shamelessly, implausibly flawed that (a) it breaks apart from the movie and has a life of its own, or (b) at least it avoids being predictable."

"The Hughes Brothers' measured, well-paced direction complements the comic-book simplicity of this narrative."

"Mad Max 2 with Thought for the Day thrown in. There’s some ace post-holocaust action, but you can’t help feel you were invited to a party with fizzy pop and cream cake and got suckered into a sermon instead."