Book of Eli & The Hurt Locker

I saw The Book of Eli on Friday with Tony and Ben and watched The Hurt Locker last night on Blu Ray with Tyler. The Book of Eli was constantly on the verge of being quite good but ended up just kind of being ok. It was shot pretty well and Denzel was pretty good but a lot of the movie just sorta seemed forced. It also was a little too similar to The Road. Ok. It was pretty much the same story except Denzel was carrying the Bible and Viggo was carrying the fire. I kept waiting for Denzel's character, Eli, to pass The Man and The Boy on the road (both pushing shopping carts and toting pistols mind you) and say hello-or shoot each other. In Eli, nothing was very understated and it didn't really leave you with questions, which can be a good or bad thing. I can't really articulate why I didn't love it. I just didn't. It quoted scripture and had an interesting twist but it felt like a lot of what I have seen before with a splash of God. The Hurt Locker was another story (literally and figuratively). I was at Blockbuster and saw it on the shelf. It is a movie I have been wanting to see as it is in theaters still in some places. It is about the Iraq War and takes place in Baghdad in 2004 and follows a unit of bomb-disarmers (this is an actual Army unit who gets called in when an IED is discovered). The movie was super intense and the acting was great. It wasn't very propaganda-ish either, which movies like this can often be. I don't want to give too much more away but it is definitely worth seeing. It just won the Critic's Choice Award for Best Picture and Best Director and the past three Academy Award Winners for Best Picture also won the critics award so this film has a good shot of taking the Oscar. It was great and makes me so glad I am not and never was in Iraq. Scary place. Here is the trailer.