Shia LaBeouf’s Eagle Eye – I never thought we’d live in a world in which I’d have to utter that phrase and have to keep a straight face (I mean that he’s young, that’s all) – is parts The Game, parts Live Free or Die Hard, parts Terminator.
Too bad is all parts derivative.In this Steven Spielberg production, F.O.S. LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan play Jerry Shaw and Rachel Holloman, two strangers brought together by a mysterious phone call from a woman neither has ever met.
Framing him as a terrorist and threatening her family, the voice pushes the two into a series of increasingly dangerous situations, using everyday life technology to track and control their every move.
As the situations in which the two find themselves escalate, Jerry and Rachel become the country's most wanted fugitives, and together, they must put on their thinking hats to figure out what’s happening, and more importantly, why.
Helping the audience string the details – honestly, Eagle Eye had me thinking one thing when in fact, something else was true – are Billy Bob Thornton and Rosario Dawson as an FBI and an Air Force agent, respectively, trying to get their man and woman and keep something terrible from happening.
About that twist…. It plays as a blatant pull-the-rug-from-under-the-crowd trick designed to make us look inward rather than outward, which is good. But consider the three references I made at the top of the review, and ultimately, it doesn’t seem quite so fresh an idea, and worse, it cheapens the already-easy thrill that is Eagle Eye.
My Rating **1/2
Photo: DreamWorks Pictures.
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