The Book of Eli (Albert & Allen Hughes, 2010)

Take one post-apocalyptic template (desert, rusting wrecks, biker gangs, a Bartertown). Add mysterious lone wanderer, who is taciturn, insular but principled, and of course a badass. Sprinkle with cameos from proper thesps hamming up for gallows humour. And above all, remember to shoot it so washed-out that it's only a click from monochrome. Voila, we have our film.
It's not that The Book of Eli is wholly without merit. Denzel Washington always retains enough vulnerability in his action protagonist roles that you do root for him, the cameos are fun, Gary Oldman's umpteenth OTT baddie is as watchable as ever, and the obligatory mass melees are inventively shot as well as elegantly curt. It's just that all the substance that is really added to the template is an overtly religious message. Countless fantasy films play with religious material just because it's fun for hokum, without imploring you to become a believer - The Omen is a good case in point. The Hughes brothers, on the other hand, really seem to have intended a Christian recruitment advert for the Transformers generation.

5/10