Eagle Eye

Review by Sean Lynch
More Eagle Eye: View Trailer

When Terminator 2 : Judgment Day hit screens in the early nineties and predicted that Skynet would destroy the world by 1997 - we all kind of scoffed and laughed at the pure fun and improbability of it all.

After all, at that stage, people were still making a transition from cassette to that crazy thing they called "Compact Discs". Seriously, what were the realistic chances that robots and computers could really uprise against their creators when they could barely run Tetris unless you typed in "C:/DOS/Games"

However, as we approach the year 2010, the world is officially an iPod nation. We live in an era where every aspect of your life can be controlled from the palm of your hand in the tiniest of mobile technologies - and more importantly - porn can be accessed and downloaded faster than you can actually use it.

It's for this reason D.J. Caruso's (Disturbia) latest teaming with Shia LaBeouf is just that little bit more horrifying.

Eagle Eye is a classic, big budget "race-against-time" thriller which follows two unsuspecting Americans that are inexplicably drawn into a national conspiracy by a mysterious woman they have never met, but who seems to know their every move.

By the time they discover her identity, they have become her unwitting accomplices in a diabolical assassination plot - leaving them as pretty much the only ones that can stop the worldwide excrement hitting the fan.

For those that saw Enemy Of The State a few years back, this pretty much travels down the same path in terms of tension and style (something Caruso has come under fire for lately thanks largely to the fact Disturbia was a carbon copy of Rear Window) - and it's for that very reason that Eagle Eye is one of the better popcorn flicks of the year.

A great cast has been assembled here, led by Hollywood Golden-Boy Shia LaBeouf (there is something so "every man" about him that make him a joy to watch no matter what he's in), with Billy Bob Thornton delivering yet another spot on smart-mouthed-hard-arse performance and Rosario Dawson doing her best as "the girl on the inside who is shocked by what her superiors are getting up to".

While the film does attempt to tackle the issue of the threat of technology (and, these days, it really is a threat) as well as how moronic it is that the Americans (or moreso the fools that have been elected in... I'm looking at you "Pitbull with Lipstick") can make or break the world... there is something all too "Hollywood" about this one.

You know the sort of "Movies about Movies" which mimic the genre to point out the ridiculous cliches that Big Budget Hollywood serves up (Tropic Thunder is a perfect example) - well this is the type of movies they are taking the piss out of.

I'm not kidding, there is a scene towards the end that will, for some strange reason, remind you of the episode of The Simpsons where Mel Gibson and Homer film a remake of Mr Smith Goes To Washington.

That said, Eagle Eye is still an extremely enjoyable movie. The twists and turns are refreshingly unpredictable, the action sequences are spectacular (not since The Blues Brothers have so many cars been destroyed), the pacing is fierce and the plot doesn't get anywhere near as convoluted or under-explained as it might in the hands of a lesser director.

Well worth checking out on the big screen, but probably won't warrant a repeat viewing until it hits DVD a few years down the track.

3 out of 5

Eagle Eye
Australian release: 25th September, 2008
Official Site: Eagle Eye
Cast: Shia LaBeouf, Billy Bob Thornton, Michelle Monaghan, Rosario Dawson
Director: D.J. Caruso