13 October 2008 @ 14:22Eagle Eye (2008) – review
Eagle Eye turned out to be a highly entertaining and action-packed, late-summer flick. The trailer for Eagle Eye led me to believe that this would be strictly an action flick that centered around terrorism as its main theme. What it turned out to be was quite a surprise to me.
Eagle Eye stars love-him-or-hate-him Shia LaBeouf as Jerry Shaw, Michelle Monaghan as Rachel Holloman, Rosario Dawson as Zoe Perez, Michael Chiklis as Defense Secretary Callister, and Billy Bob Thornton as Agent Thomas Morgan.
**Warning: if you don’t want to read any spoilers, don’t hover over the blacked-out text**
Jerry and Rachel are two strangers who find themselves working together at the whim of a strange woman who calls and threatens them if they don’t follow through with her demands. What we come to find out halfway through the film is that the woman’s voice belongs to a Department of Defense supercomputer named ARIA which has determined that the executive branch of the US government is a threat to the public’s safety and must be eliminated. ARIA is capable of accessing and controlling practically any electronic device, and by doing so has intricately orchestrated a plot to eliminate the executive branch of the government using mere civilians who have know idea of the seriousness of what they are involved in.
While the plot, as well as ARIA’s abilities, is fairly unbelievable, it definitely makes for an entertaining movie. And the whole second half of the movie, I was thinking, “ARIA is HAL-9000.” There really are quite a few similarities between ARIA and HAL, first and foremost is that the computer’s sense of what is “right” doesn’t always agree with our sense of “right”. You could also draw some parallels between Eagle Eye and I, Robot for sure.
The standout actors in Eagle Eye are Michelle Monaghan and Billy Bob Thornton. Michelle’s performance was heartfelt and intense, and Billy Bob played an awesome, hard-ass FBI agent. Shia LaBeouf delivered a decent but not outstanding performance, and both Rosario Dawson and Michael Chiklis had great, albeit small roles in Eagle Eye.
All in all, Eagle Eye delivers a focused and intricately-woven action flick.
Rent:
Netflix
by Jon | Add a comment | Tags: Anthony Mackie, Billy Bob Thornton, D.J. Caruso, eagle eye, film, Michael Chiklis, Michelle Monaghan, Rosario Dawson, Shia LaBeouf
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