Jerry Shaw is a loser. He's a smooth talker amongst his friends and full of unfulfilled potential according to his parents. He works at Copy Cabana, and is frequently behind on his rent. This is your everyman, played with a maturing skill by Shia LaBeouf, with a dreadful patch of facial hair.
Rachel, Michelle Monaghan, is a single mom dealing with her dead beat ex. She seems to have it relatively together with her priorities clearly in check. How could a hot milf like this get mixed up with our scruffy protagonist? A strange phone call from a mysterious woman. You see Jerry's twin brother has just died, and peculiar things are starting to happen to him. His bank account is full of money, and some seriously crazy shit has just been delivered to his apartment. Is he being set up? Who's behind it all? Well that's part of the fun of watching Eagle Eye now isn't it?
D.J. Caruso knows what he's doing. He handled last year's surprisingly enjoyable teen thriller throwaway Disturbia, and helmed the criminally underseen Val Kilmer starrer The Salton Sea. He has a way of elevating material, and doing it with flash and style. Here Caruso is taking his first foray into action/suspense film making and he couldn't seem more at home. Eagle Eye takes exactly fifteen minutes to hit the ground running and from then on it's like a turbo boost of adrenaline that doesn't let up until the final credits roll. The action scenes are inventive, edge of your seat fun, and even if you don't enjoy the film on a whole, it's hard to deny the thrills you can have from simply watching these scenes.
LaBeouf is growing up before our eyes and he seems to be transitioning into his role as leading man quite nicely, he carries the film on his shoulders and he does it very well. Monaghan is very passable in her role, while Rosario Dawson and Michael Chiklis are both severely underutilized. Billy Bob Thornton is the only other standout, besides our schlubby hero, who brings a third dimension to his character with his own personal charm.
The film does have it's problems though, and it's best to enjoy without being too critical. Let's just say there are points in the film where you are either with it or you aren't. If you don't buy into the whole world/situation within the first 20 minutes, you aren't going to enjoy yourself. Things are ridiculous, and I'll be the first to admit it, but when its coupled with such flair and enjoyment it's hard to nitpick.
This is also one of those films that has politics in it without being political, and, if anyone is so inclined to notice, it does raise some interesting questions. It's difficult to go into without treading into some spoiler territory. Suffice it to say, there's action for the fellas, LaBeouf for the ladies, and some conversation to be had over tea for the oldies. Eagle Eye is fun-time film making that taps into the same vein as Enemy of the State and North by Northwest (that Caruso sure does love to rip off the Hitchcock). It's what Disturbia was to Rear Window; it's more stylized, more action packed, and significantly less intelligent.
Review by: Greg MacLennan
RSS Feed
