John Chard
Sep 23, 2019
A timely reminder of what makes action/thriller movies fun. Jerry and Rachel are two strangers thrust together by a series of scenarios put together by a mysterious female caller. Under threat to their families and themselves, both Jerry & Rachel must overcome the most hazardous of situations. Intriguingly everything around them seems to be controlled by the female voice that guides them, but just why is the FBI so hot on their tail?, does Jerry's twin brother hold the key?. All will be answered as our protagonists hurtle towards something that may have deadly consequences for America. Big Brother gets a reboot and delivers as fun a genre picture as was released in 2008. Yes it's total nonsense, but really the critics venting spleen on this one must have gone through a popcorn entertainment bypass prior to viewing it. Director D.J. Caruso continues his Hitckcockian leanings by following his surprisingly fun "Disturbia" with this "North By Northwest" type concept that meets a host of the genre staples, where the influences are very hard to miss. Yet as daft as it is, and it is folks, "Eagle Eye" knits well together to play out as a highly accomplished piece, the action is first rate, in fact on big screens the two main sequences explode with joyous action abandon. This isn't found wanting on the thriller front either, it's safe to say that no new ground is to be found as we get to the tick tock countdown finale, but Caruso, and writers John Glenn & Travis Wright, have spliced together a series of wholly interesting and thrilling strands. So much so that the finale is disappointingly unable to quite deliver on the promise of the prior build up. Shia LaBeouf seemed destined to be a young actor who had to earn even the smallest bit of respect, where much like DiCaprio at the time, you felt LaBeouf was likely to get better notices later in his career. After being sidekicks to John McLaine, Indiana Jones, and erm, Optimus Prime, LaBeouf here earned his acting spurs and carries the film with a charm and credibility that the daftness of the piece doesn't quite deserve. Shia is helped enormously by a strong female lead, Michelle Monaghan has an impressive ability to sweat strength whilst channelling believable emotional turmoil, and her interplay with LaBeouf is the heartbeat of the picture. Of the rest, Michael Chiklis is a bit underused, but this is offset by Billy Bob Thornton continuing that knack of being one of the most watchable actors of his generation. Rosario Dawson is sadly weak in this and William Sadler is barely noticeable, conversely though a nod of approval goes to Anthony Mackie who shines in a crucial sequence towards the end. My first viewing was when I went to the cinema with the then two ladies in my life, we were a bit early and sat in the foyer for a while, we watched as they were queuing out the door for "High School Musical 3" and weird looking people were trundling in to see "Saw 5". There were a total of 12 people in the cinema to see "Eagle Eye" on its second week run, at a peak viewing time as well. That was a damn shame because "Eagle Eye" may well be a dumb and fun action/thriller picture, but it's not pro-porting to be anything else, and really film's with honest entertainment intent are to be treasured and used for why they are made for in the first place. "Eagle Eye" is made for those who want to shut off from the world for a couple of hours, and in doing so have an energised blast in the process. 7.5/10
