Eagle Eye

Eagle Eye: Look elsewhere

It all started with the war in the Middle East. The US forces have been after a terrorist leader who is very good at hiding. Intelligence reports a sighting in some village somewhere in Afghanistan. However, the identification is questionable. A strike is ordered to take him out. The Secretary of Defence wishes to err on the side of caution as the ID is not positive. The President orders the mission to proceed anyway. It turns out that the identification was a mistake, and all the strike took out was a bunch of civilians. In response, there is a wave of terrorist bombings and suicide bombings against US targets, and the President himself faces a huge political backlash.

With all this as the backdrop, we turn to a guy named Jerry, an ordinary joe. Jerry is an underachiever who wanders aimlessly through life, much unlike his twin brother Ethan, who is a US Air Force officer and a computer genius. Sadly, Ethan is killed in a traffic accident in Washington DC. And after Ethan's funeral, things in Jerry's life get weird.

First, he finds $750,000 in his bank account that wasn't there the day before. Then, when he gets home, he finds his apartment filled with guns, explosives, and fertilizer. While he is standing in his apartment trying to figure out where all this came from, he gets a phone call. A woman with a very appealing voice tells him to leave right away as the FBI is about to arrest him for being a terrorist. What with all the weapons and whatnot in his apartment.

Jerry doesn't leave, and is arrested a minute or so later after the FBI breaks down his door. At the local FBI office, he is interrogated by an FBI Agent who suspects Jerry is planning revenge for his brother's death. Eventually, he is allowed to make a phone call... but the mysterious woman answers and tells him to get down on the floor. He does, and a moment later the boom of a construction crane crashes through the wall, giving Jerry a chance to escape. Which he does.

Whoever this mysterious woman is, she is able to watch his every move, and is able to send him messages on programmable signs, marquees, and whatnot. She links Jerry up with a woman named Rachel, who has also been in contact with the mysterious woman. The nameless voice helps them stay one step ahead of the FBI and other authorities, and it soon becomes obvious that the two of them are pawns in some plot being orchestrated by the mystery voice at the other end of the phone.

Then they figure out what the plot is: something very bad. The voice assures the two of them that she has the safety of the American people as her ultimate goal, but the plan involves assassinating members of the US cabinet... up to and including the President himself!

I won't reveal who the mysterious woman is or why she is doing what she is doing, or even how she is able to follow Jerry and Rachel's every move and hack into public signs. All I will say is that she is voiced by Julianne Moore.

Jerry, meanwhile, is played by Shia LaBoeuf, who here plays a more grown-up role than the other works I've seen him in (as Indiana Jones' son in the latest Indy movie, and as a high-school student in Transformers). He pulls it off well enough, and has a sense of the "ordinary guy" that the role requires. He's backed up by Michelle Monaghan as Rachel, who has her own reasons for following along with the voice of Julianne Moore.

But the show-stealer here has to be Billy Bob Thornton as the FBI agent in charge of tracking Jerry down. Here, he plays an uncharacteristically straight role (I say uncharacteristic in light of some of the more oddball roles he's had, movies like Bad Santa and Sling Blade and The Man Who Wasn't There). Anyway, in virtually every scene he's in, his presence takes command of the screen.

Anyway, while the premise of the movie is intriguing, once things get going it turns into a rather pedestrian thriller, albeit one with an interesting gimmick (the voice of Julianne Moore). In addition, it is rather heavy-handed in how it deals with the whole issue of privacy vs. security and the idea of authorities spying on their own citizens.

On the other hand, many of the set pieces themselves are well done, and there are some genuinely intense moments. Ultimately, if one can get past the sheer preposterousness of the plot (especially once you figure out What's Really Going On), it's not a bad little film. But to get past that, you will need to put your brain on hold. Either that, or stretch your Suspension of Disbelief to the breaking point. So in sum I will say this film isn't all that bad... but neither is it all that good.

Last updated: 2010-04-09 19:23:44 by Xenon

Eagle Eye

Went and saw Eagle Eye.  It don’t suck.

It’s better than I expected it to be.  And I wasn’t expecting it to be very good.  I guess honestly Steven Spielberg hasn’t really let me down that often.  I’ll never forgive him for what he did to Indiana Jones though.

Did anyone see the South Park where they brought Spielberg and Lucas up on charges of raping Indiana Jones?  That was freaking hilarious.  And what’s also hilarious is the brown note episode of South Park.  I don’t wanna be a spoiler for ya, but if you know the episode of the brown note, then you really must see Eagle Eye.

Like I said, it don’t suck.  It is action packed and at times the action seems a little too packed.  The elaborate escape sequences and stuff are pretty cool to look at but ultimately unnecessary to the plot.  But it is Spielberg, right. 

The characters aren’t bad.  Billy Bob Thornton is the best.  Rosario Dawson is the hottest.  That Shia kid is okay and the chick lead is really, really cute.  She pulls it off pretty well.

It just got kinda old with the voice on the phone telling them to do something, them saying no, something bad happening, the voice telling them to do something, them saying no and then something bad happens.

Sometimes they just straight disobey and nothing happens to them.  It just don’t make much sense.

But whatever.  It’s a pretty fun ride.  It was a nice little twist on this year’s super high tech action dramas.  A twist I was familiar with having read Vulcan’s Hammer by Philip K. Dick.  Author of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep from which the cult sci-fi classic The Blade Runner was scripted.

The end does get a little loose, short of flying hammers with lasers shooting all over the place.

All in all, I give this film a 2 and a half HALs out of five.

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Cal Reed

Eagle Eye: The Best of Shia Lebeouf

The phone rings. You answer. A women speaks on the other line. She tells you what to do. If you don’t obey, you will die. Operation Eagle Eye is now in effect.
In this action/adventure film, complete with a wild car chase, you will meet Jerry Shaw and Rachel Hollormen. Two individauls who by chance find themselves running for their lives. Together.
Each commanded by an unknown female voice over the phone, they must make descisions that no one else will face. But why? What is it? Where do the calls come from? What do the strange calls and instuctions mean for America?
You’ll have to watch it. It’s seriously not something you want to miss.
What I thought: It was a true, fast paced movie. It seemed like there was always some sort of action. They were always moving. It was truely exciting.

Amazing car chases, with real cars (this film didn’t use digital) and you could tell.

Good acting, exciting score, and everything was large scale. It was all big, and you were always moving to another huge setting.
As for emotion it flowed well, and the basic story was great.

The only things I would say about it is that halfway through the movie, the complex part of the plot will not make any sense to you, but that’s okay, because at that point, the characters are feeling the same way.
Very well writen. Something great for action lovers.
Negative things

Sexual content: in the second scene sugestive laungauge is used. Rachel is seen for a second from the back without a top in a changing room.
Achohol: people drink liquer. Rachel and her friends have a round or two at the bar.
Laungauge: sadly, the launguage was not so impressive in this one. 1 or 2 f words, a ton of sh–, two or three uses of Christ’s name and a few mentions of God’s name with a D—n at the end.
Violence:
Remember this is an action movie. But it really isn’t that gorey there are only two things, a charred hand and a blood soaked shirt.
Other things include guns fired, people jumping off of buildings, guns being threateningly posed at people, trains jerking and jolting everyone aboard, explosions, car crashes, and the FBI tackling people. depending cheifly on the person, the whole chase aspect of the movie could be scary to a  young kid.
Directed by: DJ Caruso Starring: Shia Labeouf, Michelle Monaghan.
Distributed by: Dreamworks

Recommendations: The Blind Side , Batman Begins

Hannah E.

Last updated: 2010-02-24 13:14:02 by pickledwookiee

Eagle Eye

Eagle Eye! Hell frickin' yeah man. This movie was awesome. People still trying to find a movie that matched the level of action in The Dark Knight should really give this movie a go.



Eagle Eye is about Jerry Shaw, who's pretty much a complete bum played by Shia LaBeouf. Out of no where Jerry gets a call from some woman saying, "Look, I put some crazy shit in your apartment and if you don't do what I say, you'll die." Obviously he doesn't listen to her and he gets arrested and the FBI thinks he's a terrorist. Across the city, Rachel Holloman, who's this hot single mom played by Michelle Monaghan, gets a call from the same woman saying "Hey I got a camera on your son wherever he goes and I'm gonna kill your precious if you don't do what I say." This all sets the whole motion for the film.



Eagle Eye is directed by D.J Caruso, who directed Shia in Disturbia and on TV he's known for doing The Shield. This guy really knows how to direct action. The car chasing scenes were one of the most intense I've seen but it still goes at a good pace so the audience can follow what's going on beneath all that carnage. Best part to this action movie was there was somewhat of a thread of a plot which makes the whole movie not only entertaining but believable to. It doesn't really do it in spades like The Dark Knight but it's somewhere there more or less.



I really can't buy Shia LaBeouf playing this mature character. I'm looking up the movie on the Web and his character is suppose to be in his early 30's. Shia doesn't look anywhere near 30. He just doesn't have the look for it, which makes me wonder why the hell they cast him.



See what Shia is suffering from right now is the same thing Leonardo DiCaprio went through after he did Titanic. he tried doing some mature roles but we still can't get that teen Jack Dawson outta our heads. Giving him a mustache and making him wear an over sized trench coat doesn't make him look older.



Now, I've heard a lot of comments about Eagle Eye being too unrealistic but I found it okay for my taste. C'mon it's a freaking movie, it doesn't have to make a whole lot of sense. The story built around the two main characters was excellent, the build of the tension was gripping and most of the resolutions were clever. Though I do agree with the others that the ending was a bit anti-climatic.



Another thing that did bother me was Shia LaBeouf's favorite word. If you haven't noticed, in all his movies there's going to be one part where he goes NO NO NO NO NO.



Besides that, I thought Eagle Eye was highly entertaining. Just check your brain at the door and enjoy the ride. Quite a good quench for our thirst for good movies in this horrid month of house bunnies and high school musicals.



PS. To those who've been asking, the woman who calls Jerry and Rachel in the movie is Julianne Moore (The lady from Jurassic Park 2)

RATING: 7/10

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NicholasC

Eagle Eye

Can you think of a movie with a good super-computer? From Hal through to Skynet through that computer that turned Richard Pryor into a robot in Superman III, super-computers equal bad news in movies. Luddite Hollywood doesn’t seem to trust advanced technology. Never mind the irony that most of the most memorable moments in modern blockbusters are made of ones and zeroes; on-screen, super-computers are not our friends. In the new techno-thriller Eagle Eye, yet another sleek, malign thinking machine is added to the villains’ roster. Was it always this way? Did ancient audiences boo the abacus whenever it appeared on-stage?

It all begins in Afghanistan. A bunch of Afghans get killed. Secretary of Defense Michael Chiklis appears to find this worrisome, but he’s swiftly bundled off-screen so the real movie can begin. Americans are also in danger! Maybe even… the President of the United States! Enter our hero, Shia LaBeouf, playing cards and establishing himself as a lovable ne’er-do-well. Shia has a significant twin brother whose funeral he attends about two scenes after we meet him. Two scenes after that he starts getting mysterious phone calls from a woman who needs him to act like Bruce Willis. Shia doesn’t seem keen at first, but a girl, a gun and one car chase later, he’s on the lamb faster than you can sayEnemy of the State meets War Games.

Applying this movie to the ol’ preposterous-o-meter, I’d say what happens next rates about a hundred on a scale of one to ten. Eagle Eye is so little concerned with plausibility it makes Transformers look like a sober portrait of everyday life. Once you realise that, yes, this is an assassination attempt plot in which the bomb is hidden in a necklace that will be detonated when a small boy blows a trumpet… you either say, ok, Hitchcock did dumber things, or you start planning your own assassination attempt… on the screen-writer. Could anyone explain to me how power cables on an electricity pylon are ordered to snap? Or why the super-computer villain (why every super-computer villain) has a big eye it somehow requires to “see”?

Shia LaBeouf does his best to act like someone to whom a series of completely impossible things are actually happening. He’s gotten pretty good at it after Transformers and that crappy Indiana Jonesdenouement. Inheriting the wounded, smart-ass, man-child mantle from Mathew Broderick, he plays every role like Ferris Bueller if Ferris Bueller were broke. In Eagle Eye, he’s the hero, but you sort of wonder why he acts so heroic if he’s such an iconoclast. So what if the President is in danger? Why does that automatically mean everyone else has to lay down their life? What would be great (for Shia; and for any movie made post-certain Presidents) would be to have a hero stop for a second when he hears the President is in danger, and ask, for once, whether the President is worth saving.

Michelle Monaghan plays The Girl. She still looks like a Japanese comic book artist dreamed her up (big eyes, tiny nose, sexy tomboy-ish looks). Her character exists to give Shia someone to kiss, and to aim for chemistry, or as much chemistry as is possible when you’re leaping from smashed cars. She wears a nice dress for the finale, so you know she won’t get to fight anybody. Someday it’ll be The Boy watching the female lead do the exciting stuff, but alas, not today.

The moment you make a super-computer the bad guy, you’ve got problems, as far as thrillers go. Computers don’t have faces, so they’re ill equipped to sneer. Likewise, the lack of a voice-box means a long wait for a good, misplaced maniacal laugh. Computers are metal boxes, most of which don’t even have flashing lights affixed; they make for rubbish bad guys. Even when you give them an eye, they’re still a poor substitute for John Lithgow. Besides, everyone knows how to defeat an evil super-computer by now: you just pull out a few circuit boards. Eagle Eye is the kind of techno-thriller that reminds you why that prefix fills you with dread.

EAGLE EYE (2008)

BOTTOM LINE: This is a stupid, ridiculous film. The action is well done, fast paced and frenetic, and the cast are likeable enough, but these parts can't cover over the fact that the film is completely ridiculous.

THE GOOD: Spy thrillers, at least in terms of their core ideas, always have a way of fascinating us with their almost other-worldly lifestyle of intrigue, suspense and danger that make the whole endeavour attractive to enter. "Eagle Eye" is another film in this vein and has elements of the spy genre that can pique your interest. The central core of the idea is an intelligent machine which is plugged in to every electronic device in America, having the capacity to spy on anyone at any time. The machine ends up picking out two civilians, Jerry Shaw (Shia LaBeouf) and Rachel Holloman (Michelle Monaghan), forcing them to play a game of cat and mouse with the FBI and military, but always keeping them one step ahead in a plan to destroy the American government. There are many solid themes at play here, the most obvious being the terrorism overtones and how much are we willing to sacrifice our personal freedom and privacy to ensure our safety. The cast in this film are quite likeable. Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan are very strong in the leads, with Billy Bob Thornton and Rosario Dawson delivering effective supporting roles. The action is the undeniable strength of this film; the pace does not let up very much throughout the running time. A well conceived sequence occurs during a chase in an airline baggage sorting facility at an airport where Jerry and Rachel are pursued by Agent Morgan (Thornton) but have to weave their way through the sorting machines, giving an almost maze-like quality to the scene. It wouldn't be an action film without car chases and this film has plenty of them. If there's one thing about "Eagle Eye", you won't be bored by the action on offer.

THE BAD: "Eagle Eye" is completely ridiculous. The filmmakers have squarely focused their attention on the action to the point where they're hoping you'll miss the massive gaping holes in story logic. Take for example how all the terrorist equipment appears in Jerry's apartment, which starts the whole ball rolling. Jerry arrives home with his landlord telling him that strange men have been delivering boxes all day to his apartment. Rather than question it with her, he shoves her off and locks himself in the apartment and looks shocked at what he's seeing. This also conveniently allows him to have his first conversation with "Eagle Eye" on his mobile phone. There are many moments like this and the film tries to explain this away by telling us that Jerry isn't all that smart but you'd think even someone with only half a brain would be able to behave smarter than that. If that wasn't enough, there's the machine at the heart of Eagle Eye which is yet another riff on Hal from 2001 and ends up being a silly gimmick that belongs more in a sci-fi parody than in a film trying to be a spy thriller. The problem in the end is that other films have covered this territory much better, most recently being the Will Smith starrer "Enemy of the State". If the filmmakers of "Eagle Eye" had paid more attention to developing the paranoia inherent in the concept for this story and its effect on the characters, as well as the logic of the story and character motivations, they just might have had something; but as it stands, this film is ridiculous and is only watchable for the action.

RATING: 5/10

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Todd Murphy <br />
http://www.allaboutmovies.net

Eagle Eye

It has been quite some time since I watched a good action thriller, so this was a nice film to fill my craving in that department.
As I was watching this film and looking at Aria, I was reminded of Flight of the Navigator. If you look at her, she resembles the ship’s computer (can’t think of his name right now).
Since I play trumpet (and have developed a hatred for playing the national anthem), it was cool to see that a trumpet playing the national anthem could blow up the whole Executive branch of the U.S. government.
When will the government learn that supercomputers are good at first, but eventually they all begin to take their work too seriosuly and will take over the country/world? Seems like they never will.
Shia LeBeouf has come a long way since his Disney channel days. This role shows how he has grown as an actor. No, i’m not ready to crown him the next Sir Laurence Olivier or anything, but with each film he’s in, he gets better.
Michelle Monoghan didn’t really have much to work with here. She spent most of the film freaking out about her son and bitching about her ex-husband not paying child support on time. It seemed like there might have been sparks between her and Jerry, but that’s just an assumption.
Billy Bob Thornton didn’t have his trademark southern accent here, but he was still a smart-ass. Who would have ever guessed he’d be a good action star, though?
Rosario Dawson is underused here. I’m not just saying that because she’s uber hot, but for an actress as talented as she is, they could have given her either a better role or more screentime. I wouldn’t have minded her and Michelle Monoghan switching places.
Michael Chiklis fit right in as the Secretary of Defense, though you kid of got the feeling he wanted to get out there and be part of the action, especially after he was locked in that room by Aria.
I saw the trailers for this flick last year, and it seemed to me like a rip off of The Matrix. For a good portion of the film, it does resemble the pre Matrix parts of The Matrix, but the similarities end there. I would thing, though, that Jerry would have taken a note from those films and note that when a strange person calls you on the phone and tells you to do something that will keep you out of trouble, you do it. Maybe it’s just me, though.
The fact that Aria pretty much controlled and could track any and everyone was a bit disturbing, and makes you wonder if this technology really exists and if the government would use it. Are we that paranoid these days that we need to know what each person is doing 24 hrs a days? I think not, but then again, I’m not a government official.I hope you enjoy this film as much, if not more, than I did.

http://thankyounetflix.wordpress.com

Eagle Eye

I think it's a great movie, its effects and storyline is great.  But i don't really like the ending. I like the pace of the movie, how it's so exciting and climax for majority of the movie.  The length of the movie is also very appropriate.  However, the part about how the last note of the song played in the white house to the president triggered the bomb, is actually the same as in another similar movie "Get Smart".  Overall, I would recommend everyone who loves thriller movies to watch this movie.  It's really good.

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Eagle Eye

this movie is too futuristic. very much like your i robot, or stealth,when the super computer decides to do what is best for the human race,and takes things to its own hands.
once again, showing our over reliance towards technology. however, itseems like a really far-fetched idea of what government surveillance inthe name of national security can turn against the common public.
at first, i did thought it had something to do with the terrorist inthe middle east again, which would make this story really really boringlike most “terrorist” shows. even the terrorist in iron man was frommiddle east. =.= kinda sterotypical i feel. the bad guys are eitherrussians or middle eastern. kinda sad i feel.
shia is no doubt spielberg’s golden boy, working with shia again.
michelle monaghan put in an average performance, in which i still feelher best performance so far has to still go to gone baby gone and kisskiss bang bang.
the action seqeunces are.. kinda normal. very much like, isn’t thatcomputer too smart?? why is everything in this world controlled by onesuper computer. its a part i find it unreal, and kinda scary actuallylike what if everything in this world becomes automated.
the opening i find was really good, but needed more explaination to the event.
5/10, it barely made it for me. there’re times i did find myselfasleep. maybe the cinema was really comfortable. =X this genre, i guessit takes something really special to have a break through with thecritics.

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