Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Eagle Eye (2008)


In some ways Eagle Eye is a souped up version of The Net but with a little something extra. Love or hate the movie depends on how you swallow that extra.

Transformers star Shia LaBeouf plays Jerry Shaw a young man who unfortunately happens to have more money than he had actually deposited plus he now has an apartment he doesn’t have a spot to lie in since it’s full of explosives. To make matters worse, the FBI is on his tail just as he was barely coming to grips with money and crime he didn’t commit.

Also in the same boat is the pretty Michelle Monaghan who as Rachel Holloman is like Jerry Shaw seems to be living a life of crime one morning.

If you’ve seen The Net well you know Jerry or Rachel will get no where citing records. While the lead characters were more outgoing than Sandra Bullock’s character there was the theme of an ever present and “dependable” computer network is apparent all throughout. The evidence was never challenged. The technology is there and everyone believes in it. It may be too much of a stretch now that I think of it that people would just follow a stranger’s call so easily.

The internet and computers are ever present now with the coming of cellphones and wireless technology. There was even a reference to a popular social networking site which makes me wonder to be honest of what posts like I am doing now will do in the near future. How much of a picture am I painting of myself even with just movie reviews?

Story wise Eagle Eye is fast paced. It was a chase most of the time; two people getting framed trying to escape the FBI through a mysterious woman who keeps calling his cellphone. Shia reminds me too often of Transformers, but he can really sell the intensity of the situation with the occasional humor. Michelle also did ok.

Helping give credibility to the story are supporting characters who are, among others, Billy Bob Thornton (Agent Thomas Morgan), Rosario Dawson (Zoe Perez), and Michael Chiklis (Defense Secretary George Callister). Chiklis as great as he is has too few lines though. I wasn’t completely sold on the Defense Secretary role having thought of him more as Ben Grimm or Vic Macky of TV’s The Shield.

Finally for that extra, suffice to say I was not sold on the idea. One reason is its lack of originality. And two, well, it was too outrageous for its environment. I’d have to give it to the movie for giving the audiences something to think about in this age of connectivity.

But overall I’d say that Eagle Eye is one fun ride. Not a bad movie to watch one lazy afternoon.

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