Overstylized, overdramatic and overcooked are all understatements when describing Albert and Allen Hughes’ The Book of Eli. The only facet of it I can speak highly of is Gary Oldman, who finally returns to the baddie throne he built so long ago. Otherwise, the film is just an exercise in technological possibilities on the part of the directors and their team. We come along for their ride.

Let’s start with the visuals, which is clearly where The Hughes Brothers devoted most of their efforts. Taking a page out of the Sin City and 300 playbooks, the film is mostly greenscreened footage over a hyper-realistic backdrop. It’s a style, no doubt, but one that is more grating than it is interesting in this instance. Shot on the RED camera, foreground imagery seems to break apart very quickly, at least on the print I saw. I don’t care how many “K”s they put in the resolution, it really did not mix well with the synthesized backgrounds. Besides that, this steampunk-chic post-apocalypse is nothing new to audiences. So what do the Hughes Brothers bring to the table that maybe we haven’t seen before? God! Read on…

Tony Scott films tend to be violent, profane, and intellectually apropos. The limey director’s latest, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, hits all of those points on target, though unfortunately, just so. The actioner doesn’t thrill quite as well as his Deja Vu, nor does it smack of a weekend-long peyote trip like his brilliant (yeah, I said brilliant) Domino. Still, for a New York action film, Pelham delivers the goods for most of its run time. To see an NYC action film that really stinks up a portrayal of Manahttan gunplay, check out Richard Donner’s 16 Blocks.

The only relation this remake has to Joseph Sargent’s 1974 thriller of the same name is a title, so let’s not bark up that tree of comparitive cinema. Mr. Scott is a big boy, we can judge his film without the prism of history. The story follows Walter Garber, an MTA muckity muck sentenced to working a dispatch mic after a scandal involving Japanese kickbacks. Played by Denzel Washington, Mr. Garber happens to be on the recieving end of a phone call from a terrorist who goes by the name of Ryder, played by John Travolta. Having hijacked a single car of a 6 train and cut off transit along that track, Ryder demands $10 million and the ability to stay on the line with Garber. So there you have it, the makings of a tight little thriller. Except, not really. Read on…