Eagle Eye

Tonight is a DVD night. No cinema.

So I am watching 'Eagle Eye' starring Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Monaghan,  Rosario Dawson and Billy Bob Thornton. It is a not so bad action techno thriller that lacks a certain amount of the gravitas that Tony Scott gave to 'Enemy Of The State'.

It is directed by D.J. Caruso - this is one of three of his films I have seen. They have all been slick if nothing else.

There are four writing credits to the movie (one of those getting credited for the story), it is hard to see why it took quite so many people to write it. I suppose a couple of them were doing polishing duties - tightening up the dialogue to make it witty and snappy.

Take the everyman being tracked and chased by government agencies for something he has no idea about that was a feature of 'Enemy Of The State' add in a little paranoia of us in the goldfish bowl of a big brother society and top it off with a mad bad computer that has a life of its own and you have the basis of 'Eagle Eye'.

In the main the film deals with all of this well.

Shia is able to do the helpless and lost while also being able to spring into action when needed. Shia's big movies have been the 'Transformers' movies - films which when you consider that they are about big robots beating the crap out of each oher are surprisingly dull. In these Shia isn't really called upon to do much. He strikes me as an actor waiting for his moment to show he can act.

Michelle Monaghan has been in a lot, and I have seen her in several of her movies and she doesn't really leave much of an impression. Competent is the word that springs to mind, thoguh this might be because of the types of movies I prefer to see aren't really ones in which female characters get to shine.

Billy Bob does what Billy Bob does best talk smack and walk the walk as an FBI agent on the case.

Rosario Dawson is well Rosario and that is not a bad thing at all. She looks fantastic and I have decided more women should dress in black suits and white shirts - it is a great look.

The film is competent and fun.

It is worth checking out if you have nothing better to do.

It scores 6.6 on IMDB

Rotten Tomatoes has it at 26% when it comes to professional reviews and 72% when it comes to viewer reviews.

Directed By: D.J. Caruso
Written By: Dan McDermott, Travis Wright, John Glenn, Hillary Seitz
Time 1 hr. 58 min.
Released: Oct 2008
Paramount Studios