In a scorched post-apocalypse America, a lone adventurer fights to keep possession of a book he believes carries sacred powers. With his shades and grey-flecked beard, co-producer/star Denzel Washington certainly cuts an iconic figure in his odyssey through desert landscapes dotted with dangerous marauders. We seem set for a comic-strip amalgam of The Road and Mad Max 2, yet directors the Hughes Brothers (Dead Presidents, From Hell) apply their own distinctive stamp to this curious blend of futuristic western and sombre meditation on the uses and abuses of faith. As the deliberately paced story sets Washington and ruthless Gary Oldman in bloody conflict over the eponymous tome, it's not too hard to guess the identity of the good book in question. In a world of anonymous production-line action flicks, a nod of respect is due to the Hughes boys for sticking to their own idiosyncratic path (watch for jaunty cameos from Michael Gambon and Frances de la Tour as cranky survivalists), even if - the credibility-shredding final-reel twist's a particular howler - it's undoubtedly a wayward one.

A post-apocalyptic tale, in which a lone man fights his way across America in order to protect a sacred book that holds the secrets to saving humankind.