KEY POINTS:
Rating:
* *
Verdict:
Highly derivative big brother thriller suffers from speed wobbles
Say this for high-surveillance super-computer thriller
Eagle Eye
, it's sure got a lot of processing power. It whizzes us so quickly through the action, which has a pair of Chicago strangers (LaBeouf and Monaghan) being cellphone-blackmailed to do possibly bad things down in D.C., it's as if it doesn't want us to stop and realise how preposterous it all is. Nice try.
And while it's got some grunt in the crash-bang department, it is woefully low on memory.
This is basically
Enemy of the State
meets
The Matrix
, meets
Die Hard
parts two to four, meets every film with artificial intelligence represented by a glowing eye of red light. Its ending is spookily similar to the
Get Smart
movie. Which is just dumb.
Yes, it may be trying to say something about the US Patriot Act, Homeland Security, the invasiveness of technology, the war on terror and the erosion of freedoms in the George W era. But any message gets drowned out by the rest of the film loudly shouting: look out for the collapsing powerlines/swinging crane boom/ airport luggage conveyor/heavily armed drone airplane behind you ...
That's while it's making its actors point guns, run fast and shout a lot at each other. Sometimes - when it gets really exciting - they do all three.
That is unless, of course, they are supporting characters like Rosario Dawson's USAF agent who seems to have wandered in by mistake from the Pentagon office next door. Having flashed her badge, she soon looks like she doesn't know quite what she's doing here. You'll soon feel the same.
Russell Baillie
Cast:
Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Monaghan
Director:
DJ Caruso
Rating:
M
Running time:
110 mins
Screening:
SkyCity, Hoyts, Berkeley cinemas