Review of Eagle Eye (2008) by Reilly J — 08 Sep 2010

Eagle Eye is a big budget, modern day, fast-paced, action-thriller of the "why didn't they just do that in the first place?" caliber.

It starts with a fairly run-of-the-mill thriller setting, which catches your attention because you aren't really expecting much in the way of originality, Shia LaBeouf plays, Jerry, some down on his luck dude with a few family problems, his twin brother, the favoured child has just died in a car crash and he's becoming a stranger in his own home (they decide to abandon most of this drama afterward and focus on action). And all of a sudden there is seven hundred and fifty grand in his bank account, his apartment is filled with high-powered weapons, bombs and bazookas and shit, and the FBI after him. A woman contacts him on the phone and starts to give him instructions on how to evade the authorities and get into car chases etc. Like an action GPS, "Smash fruit stand next 50m".

At the same time a single mother, Rachel (Michelle Monaghan), is has put her son on board a train to go with the school band to play for the president in the White House. All of a sudden she is contacted by this woman, who seems to be able to control everything electronic, and she tells her to do as she says or she'll derail her son's train and kill him. So she has to meet up with Jerry and they are chased across the country by the FBI whilst some sinister and totally ludicrous plot unfolds.

This movie keeps you watching it not because it's really entertaining or anything but because you want to know what this whole big plot is all about. In the end though I gotta say it's not really worth it, it's unlikely even for an action film, they manage to make most of it fit together but there's always that one little missing link that makes it all fall apart again.

The repetition of the line "No questions!" reflects the nature of this movie, like... I could give you examples but that would be giving away stupid plot points, basically there are so many questions that need answering, and I think the woman on the phone is talking to the audience as opposed to the characters.

The script is lazy and the characters have no chemistry or charm. Shia LaBeouf despite what people say about him is not a bad actor and him and Michelle Monaghan do okay in their roles but the script and the characters don't give them much to work with so the performances are quite unremarkable. They sure aren't the characters we saw in Transformers and Gone Baby Gone.

The CGI and special effects are pretty good as expected in a Michael Bay produced action film but they alone cannot save the film. Despite the visuals the actions scenes are crap, they look like they were filmed by Peter Garrett, I could tell what the fuck was going on during them and of course they are incredibly softcore and shy away from any kind of graphic violence (no hard swearing either, you can tell who this was aimed at).

In the end all this is a stupid, pussy-arsed, watered down action movie that no only asks you to suspend your disbelief but your intelligence as well. All of those people who saw Transformers as an insult to the audiences intelligence need to watch this, Transformers was a sci-fi film at least, this is just retarded.

This is softcore action at its worst and I give it 1 star.