Reviewed by Stuart O'Connor
Stars Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Monaghan, Billy Bob Thornton, Rosario Dawson, Michael Chiklis, Anthony Mackie,
Ethan Embry,Anthony Azizi, Cameron Boyce
Written by John Glenn & Travis Wright
Certification UK 12A | US PG-13
Runtime 118 minutes
Directed by DJ Caruso
The last time LaBeouf and Caruso teamed up was for Disturbia, an entertaining but slightly pedestrian reworking of the classic Hitchcock thriller Rear Window. They've teamed again for Eagle Eye — which, while entertaining enough, is nothing but a pile of old tosh.
It starts well, and firmly grounded in reality, with some hi-tech military gadgetry being put to use in the Middle East. But once ther plot proper kicks in, all sense of reality — and common sense, and decent storytelling — goes flying out the window. Young Jerry Shaw (LaBeouf), the brother of a dead Iraq war hero, is framed as a terrorist and being chased by FBI agent Morgan (Thornton). He's thrown together with single mother Rachel Holloman (Monaghan) and the two are sent on a wild cross-country road trip to Washington, and help in a plot to assasinate the President and all the members of Congress — guided along the way (or, rather, ordered) by an all-seeing, all-knowing mystery female voice at the other end of their mobile phone. A voice that can somehow control all the CCTV cameras, traffic lights, mobile phone signals and even computers in the entire country. Silly? Extremely.
But as silly as it is, it's still fun to watch — as long as you don't switch your brain on (which means this should play well in Middle America). Thornton gets all the funny lines, Monaghan is pretty to look at, Chiklis is very un-Vic Mackey like and LaBeouf seems to be turing into the action man for the new milennium. See this only if you're really, really, REALLY desperate to see an action flick while waiting for the new Bond to arrive.