The Book of Eli:


Frank C. Warren
Picture Courtesy Of Warner Bros.

Movie Length: 118 minutes
Rated:R
Released: Jan. 15, 2010
Starring: Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, and Mila Kunis
Directors: Allen and Albert Hughes
Screenplay: Gary Whitta
Showing: The Carmike and Regal Cinemas
When: Various times

Once again, Denzel Washington
comes through the screen with a largerthan-
life role in the new movie “The
Book of Eli.” Full of great action-packed
sequences and a plethora of surprises,
this movie will be a treat to apocalyptic
adventurers everywhere.

For 30 years, Eli (Denzel
Washington) has been walking across
America to the west, carrying a book
that “God” has told him to take to a
certain city by faith. After many mishaps,
he finally comes across a functioning,
populated town so that he can charge his
iPod. During his time there, trouble breaks
out and he finds himself before bad-guy
Carnegie (Gary Oldman). They have a
scuffle over the book, which Carnegie has
been searching for all his life. Meanwhile,
Eli meets Solara (Mila Kunis) who
follows him when he leaves town. Right
up until the end it’s a page-turner of a
movie with a surprising ending that speaks
a lot about the value of having a certain
kind of faith.

Roger Ebert, in his blog for the
Chicago Sun-Times, says: “The Book of
Eli’ is very watchable. You won’t be sorry
you went. It grips your attention, and
then at the end throws in several “WTF!”
moments...”

Michael O’Sullivan of the
Washington Post said: “Most people have
some good in them and some bad. This is
one of the messages of ‘The Book of Eli,’
a hyper-violent, post-apocalyptic Western
in the mold of ‘Mad Max’ that can’t make
up its mind whether it wants to be corny
or misanthropic.”

Though there are some Christian
references in the movie, most viewers
shouldn’t find things overwhelmingly
spiritual. “The Book of Eli” is still an
action movie, with lots of shotguns,
ladies, killing, broken bones and gore.

Alex Remington of the Huffington
Post sums it up best when he wrote
this concerning the movie:
As movie
premises go, it’s hard to top a postapocalyptic
action movie. Every scene
and setpiece is a perfect empty canvas
for a lunatic art department to create a
frightening, barely recognizable vision
of our world to tell a story with burnt-out
rubble of how humanity destroyed itself,
as we all know will happen some day.
There are many great movies
coming out with special effects; this
movie is in my top-ten of 2009-10
because it has a good plot, awesome
special effects, and it has a great cast to go
with it. Gary Oldman plays an awesome
super-villian and Denzel Washington is a
truly heroic figure in the quest for good.
If you liked “Mad Max,” you’ll love this
movie. This movie gets four out of five
stars.


1 comments

Here's To Your Success!


Frank C. Warren

Some people just don't get math, and to those of you that do get it; my hat comes off to you. According to Vicki Maurer, math faculty and Learning Center coordinator, "Math is like learning a new language." I couldn't agree more.

Last week, Jan. 12 and 13, Maurer taught a seminar on "So Much Math, So Little Time'', one of six Academic Success seminars taught by various instructors at Linn-Benton Community College this term. During the seminar she talked about the importance of taking notes, understanding how to read your math textbook and not being afraid of asking your instructor for help, to name a few key elements.

“At LBCC, we are all about student success”, said Maurer. “Through these workshops I help students increase awareness of the math resources we offer and give them tips to help make math less intimidating. Anything I can do to help students succeed is a good use of my time.”

Chareane Wimbley-Gouveia, a member of the Developmental Studies department and co-coordinator of the Learning Center, located at WH-226, said, "The success workshops have been going on for 10 years. They were created because some students couldn't take the credit classes, and we wanted to make sure that everyone could get the tools for college success."

Mandy Lassley, a psychology major who attended the math workshop a term ago said, "The math workshop helped me a lot even though I didn't find that everything applied to me. After math class I go straight to the Math Angle and I have the help that I need. If you struggle with stuff (math) it's a big help."

For more information you can visit the Linn Benton Website or download the PDF.


At a glance:
What: Academic Success seminars
When: January-March various times
Who: The Learning Center, LBCC
Where: Various classrooms, Albany, Corvallis, and Lebanon Campuses.
For more information see the Linn Benton Website.

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