Rating of
2/4
Big Brother is Watching, but Should You?
Chris Kavan - wrote on 09/29/08
Why they waited until fall to release this one, I have no idea. This is pretty much a typical summer popcorn movie. Lots of action, an absurd plot (really, don't think too hard or this movie is much more enjoyable if you shut your brain off) and lots of familiar faces.
The biggest draw against Eagle Eye is that it takes a bunch of ideas that have been done already (usually better) and throws them together trying to make an original picture. It's lazy, it's sneaky and all the explosions and gun fighting can't save what's basically a bad copy of a superior product.
It starts out promising with perpetual slacker Jerry Shaw (the IT boy Shia LeBeouf) finding himself an instant terrorist while a unnervingly calm female voice over the cell phone telling him exactly what to do to survive. Oh yeah, there's another character doing exactly the same thing (Michelle Monaghan) to save her son from this same OnStar-from-Hell voice. As witnessed though out the film, a bunch of minor characters are also being coerced, threatened and such to do the same thing.
By the halfway point, you pretty much know what's going on. There are no really big surprises, though the cast does there best to keep this stale story fresh. Billy Bob Thornton is his usually dour, yet determined self and Rosario Dawson sasses up her military role.
Eagle Eye manages to keep the action pretty taught - there are enough car chases, explosions and the like to keep it interesting. Still, the sheer complexity of the plot (when it could have been made oh so much easier, but then there wouldn't be much of a movie left) lifted from so many better sources makes this a sub-par thriller with pretty faces to dress it up.
