Eagle Eye [Blu-ray]
Starring: Michael Chiklis, Billy Bob Thornton
Director: D.J. Caruso Rating: PG-13 Format:

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Product Details

Actors: Michael Chiklis, Billy Bob Thornton, Rosario Dawson, Anthony Mackie, Shia LaBeouf
Directors: D.J. Caruso
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
Language: English
Subtitles: English, French, Portuguese, Spanish
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Number of discs: 1
Rating: PG-13
Studio: Dreamworks Video
DVD Release Date: December 27, 2008
Run Time: 117 minutes

Plot

Jerry and Rachel are two strangers thrown together by a mysterious phone call from a woman they have never met. Threatening their lives and family, she pushes Jerry and Rachel into a series of increasingly dangerous situations, using the technology of everyday life to track and control their every move.

Movie Comment from IMDB.com

This review might be monitored, so I better give this a good review. After the surprise major success of Rear Window, er, I mean, Disturbia, D.J. Caruso and Shia LaBeouf are teaming up yet again to create another movie with Hitchcock elements. This time however, the borrowing extends from Hitchcock to Spielberg, Tony Scott, Stanley Kubrick, and more. This is definitely a movie you have seen before, definitely containing themes that we’ve seen time and time again, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that this is one heck of a thrill ride. Using an idea that Spielberg created, Caruso directs a high-pulse, tense ride that spans a good portion of the United States. Thanks to the supervision and guidance of Spielberg, Eagle Eye is able to rise above expectations and provide a good blend of suspense, drama, mystery, and action. However, unlike the fourth Indiana Jones, this film actually contains a plausible explanation for all the insanity that is happening to the main characters and everyone else involved. Sadly though, there is one element in the movie that prevents it from being among the best thrillers out there.

Eagle Eye is about two people that don’t know each other (LeBeouf and Michelle Monaghan) that are suddenly forced to receive orders from a mysterious woman over the phone in order to remain living. Things get stranger and scarier when the female seems to be able to manipulate everything involving technology to help (or harm) whomever she pleases. In the meantime, the two strangers are being chased around the country by federal agents. It’s a wild goose chase that doesn’t slow down nor contains a path of where its going. We can thank the creative writing staff for this (Spielberg idea, Dan McDermott story, four writers in total), as they throw away any chance of character development and replace it with barrage after barrage of foot/car chases, revelations, plot twists, and surprises. Like previously stated, it “borrows” plenty from Enemy of the State, 2001, I, Robot, North By Northwest; but this doesn’t mean Eagle Eye is a highly-predicable flick.

Strong acting is required to keep you wanting to root for the victims throughout the entire ordeal. Luckily for Caruso and Dreamworks

, LeBeouf otc equivalent lotrisone to and Monaghan do a superb job in their roles, adding extra spice to their characters as they scramble around taking orders with plenty of resistance multiple times. Rosario Dawson, Billy Bob Thornton, and Michael Chikilis have smaller roles but also do a decent job with the material they are presented with. D.J. Caruso does a swell job in blending the scenes together and maintaining the frantic pacing. He’s evolved a lot since “Taking Lives.” The strongest parts of this movie are the intense and utterly insane action scenes and chases that erupt a few times here and there. The CGI is absolutely incredible and believable throughout because it wasn’t overused and wasn’t crafted on such an epic scale, it reveals itself to be fake. The explosions, car crashes and debris flying about is seen all over the place and quite frankly leaves you gasping for air. If its not the action leaving you breathless, it’s the cinematography that will leave you sick; the trend of shaking the camera relentlessly in order to heighten the tension is quite overused this time around. Perfected in The Bourne Ultimatum, there are instances in which you can barely make out what’s happening, and there are other times in which a headache is emerging inside your brain (the switching from darkness to bright lights is just plain cruel).

Like any suspenseful movie involving cyber terrorism and/or fears of progress of technology, there are instances in which you have to shut off your brain and just enjoy the ride. A good portion of the conflicts could have been solved if the higher-class soldiers and agents of the United States weren’t so gullible and stupid. Another interesting thing to note is that the two main characters are pretty strong and dangerous despite not having any actual military and/or hand-to-hand combat training. But, this is just me being nit-picky. Eagle Eyes

‘ main drawback is that it has to follow the footsteps of The Bourne Ultimatum, one of the slickist, smartest, and best action thrillers in decades. Don’t let that statement bring you down though, because Eagle Eye is well worth your money, as it delivers the thrills that most 2008 summer movies were severely lacking. We are seeing good material from rising stars LeBeouf, the underrated Monaghan, and director (and seemingly student of Spielberg/Hitchcock) D.J. Caruso.

Bottom Line: An intense thriller from start to finish, Eagle Eye is a summer blockbuster at heart with plenty of action, suspense, and doused off with modern-day themes that are highly-prevalent. While this failed to become the next Jaws or Psycho in terms of subtlety crafting a new phobia, you may leave the theater being a bit wary of your surroundings for a bit. Shut the brain off on certain scenes, leave them open for the information-overload scenes, and prepare to engage in an edgy journey that will you blow you away when everything on screen is blowing up. In a season full of Oscar-winner wanna-bes, we have a film with exciting leftover summer flavor.

P.S. Who is the idiot that thought that Sprint would benefit from product placement in a movie that involves people getting killed off if they don’t obey the voice over a phone?

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