Review of Red Eye (2005) by Meritcoba — 18 Jun 2016

The courteous creep Jack Rippner (Cillian Murph) must have manipulated the seat arrangements in the plane so he can sit next to cute hotel manager Lisa Reisert (Rachel McAdams) and blackmail her into sparing the life of her dad in exchange for the deaths of the under secretary of Homeland security and his family who happen to stay in the hotel she works for.

It is that kind of thriller directed by horror expert Wes Craven who is well past his prime nowadays. So where you hope something unexpected to happen you get the usual aggravating nonsensical tale of a lone woman against creepy guy. Reality and logic require suspension and the gods of ultimate coincidence need to be invoked to keep the tale on track. During the cat and mouse game between Lisa and Jack it even gets to physical blows, but of course, as per script, nobody notices anything. Not even the violent banging against the walls of the toilet in an airliner triggers questions.

The low point is reached two thirds into the movie. Lisa escapes the clutches of the scary guy to run through the airport dodging security and police, while trying to phone her dad and her hotel at the same time. Why she doesn't go to the first security guard or police officer she sees is baffling considering that she has been attempting to warn them the whole time. Even more unbelievable is that the hotel assistant she gets a hold of doesn't even bother to call the room where the undersecretary is to warn him of impending attack, but instead decides to take the elevator all the way up and deliver the warning in person. What cheap way to create suspense. More unbelievable scenes follow, mostly at her dad's house. The police delays showing up and the neighborhood doesn't bat an eye when Lisa runs over a bad guy aiming for her dad with a stolen car and smashes it frontally into her dads house. In the end Lisa, after fighting Jack tooth and nail is saved from the creep by her dad. Hey, she is a woman after all.

To sum up.There are some unintentional funny moments, a few stupid people, and a cast that makes the best of a failing script bled dry of originality. If you happen to be a fan of Wes Craven don't go and see this movie: you'll see his image notched. If you have something better to do you might consider skipping it also. It isn't totally bad, it is just implausible and run of the mill.