Eagle Eye (2008)

           Eagle Eye            

NETFLIX SYNOPSIS:  Returning home after the shocking death of his overachieving twin brother, an aimless slacker named Jerry (Shia LaBeouf) finds himself inexplicably linked to notorious terrorist cell. Now, with the nation’s law enforcement agencies hunting them down, Jerry and single mother Rachel (Michelle Monoghan) — who’s also been framed — must work around the clock to thwart a political assassination and clear their names in the process.

REVIEW:   ***SPOILERS****

Eagle Eye is an utterly preposterous action flick, but, unlike “Wanted”, EE is at least consistent in its preposterousness. And unlike Transformers, it’s clever and fun-silly, as opposed to routine and just dumb-silly. The story is basically a takeoff on HAL or Skynet, as a computer called Eagle Eye has gone mad w/its own power and decides it must kill the president and a bunch of other high-government officials, using innocent civilians, who are our heroes.

EE has some of the best action sequences of the year, director D. J. Caruso knows how to film a chase scene so it’s coherent and thrilling. There are at least two great pursuits, the first a car chase that has some nice, believable dramatic tension as well as comedy, as two complete strangers are thrown together quite literally in the middle of each others action sequence, each trying to figure out who the other is and what the heck they’re both doing there, all the while the omnipresent computer voice instructs them how and where to drive thru the chaos, like On Star on steroids, or perhaps acid. Caruso even manages to put a little extra umph! into the car crashes themselves as he does something fresh, showing bits and pieces flying off the vehicles on impact, it’s a subtle but effective technique.

The other chase is on an airport luggage system, which has been done before but never this well. With superb editing, Caruso turns it into a carnival ride from hell (these actors must have been really banged up afterwards); he has Hitchcock’s talent of making us feel the movement of the action as the characters ride and tumble about, we’re as dizzy as they are.

One of the things I liked about the flick was that the gaps in logic, which always occur in these kinds of movies, could be explained: For instance, why would the mastermind (the computer, who is female) of the plot against the president bring in the authorities in the way it setup the protagonist (so he had to obey her or go to jail)? Because she doesn’t care how much chaos she creates, she is only concerned with getting from point A to point B to point C, it doesn’t matter how she gets there, only that she does. It’s a nice gimmick.

EE is a fun popcorn flick that doesn’t pretend to be anything else. But, somewhat OT, there was one thing I hated about it. We’re familiar with product placement these days, of course, it must be tolerated. But EE has one of the most obvious, pandering bits of advertising that I’ve ever seen, even in this day and age. The protagonists go into a Circuit City and as they walk to their destination w/in the store we clearly hear the Circuit City loudspeaker in the background giving a specific, very complete advertisement for which area to go in the store to find the best sales. It’s more than just your standard product placement, it’s a full-blown commercial in the middle of the movie. There is absolutely nothing else happening in the scene except for the hero and heroine walking thru the store during the entire voice-over, it’s obviously deliberate. It’s the only time in the movie I felt cheated.

3.5 stars
Harold

*************************************************************************************************

REVIEW:  A fun action flick. Lots of great car crashes (the real deal and not CGI) and stuff getting blown up. Plot was interesting and the pace was fast.

3.5 stars
Kim A