Eagle Eye, DVD Review

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Eagle Eye is the 2008 action/thriller directed by D.J. Caruso (sounds like he should be doing the club scene!) and written by Dam McDermott. The film opens with the military tracking a terrorists leader in the Middle East. Unable to get absolute confirmation that their intended target is actually present at the funeral they’re observing, the president, against the recommendation of the computer and the secretary for defence (Michael Chiklis), the president orders the attack to go ahead anyway. After the attack it’s determined that the funeral-goers were all civilians and the attack prompts a series of retaliatory bombings.

We then leave the Middle East and meet Jerry Shaw (Shia LaBeouf). Jerry, a Stanford University dropout, works at a photocopying shop, is permanently short of cash and is generally unremarkable. After a pretty normal days work Jerry finds out that his air force lieutenant twin brother has been killed. After the funeral he tries to withdraw some money from an ATM and is amazed when the balance comes up at over $700,000. On arriving back at his apartment, pockets stuffed with cash, he finds it inexplicably full of packages containing guns, military equipment and enough ammonium nitrate to make a sizeable bomb.

Whilst wondering what the hell is going on Jerry’s mobile rings. A female voice tells him that in 30 seconds the FBI will arrive at his apartment and arrest him and that to escape he must leave now. Jerry asks too many questions of the voice and ignores her warnings and sure enough the FBI come crashing into the apartment and arrest Jerry. Meanwhile, in another part of town, another unremarkable individual, Rachel (Michelle Monaghan), has just dropped her son off at the train station. Later that evening, whilst out drinking with her girlfriends, she too received a phone call from the mysterious woman. She’s told that unless she does as she’s told her son’s train will be derailed. Rachel is directed towards a Porsche, given directions and told to wait at an appointed spot.

Jerry, after being questioned by FBI special agent Thomas Morgan (Billy Bob Thornton) is eventually allowed his phone call. When he picks up the phone, he finds the mysterious woman on the line. He’s told that he’s been ‘activated’ and needs to follow directions or their will be severe consequences. His escape from federal custody has been planned and this time Jerry does as he’s told. Once out of the federal building Jerry tries to go against the voice’s directions and gets on the wrong train. Immediately the train stops and reverses directions. The mobile of the guy across from him goes off and it’s for him, it seems that whoever is directing him can see him and his actions no matter where he goes. How is this possible?

Jerry and Rachel’s paths cross as Jerry is directed into the Porsche that Rachel is driving. After determining that they’re both unwilling pawns of the mysterious voice they’re given a series of instructions that lead them into increasing danger. Along the way they meet other pawns of the voice. What does a gem cutter, a musical instrument mender, a single mother and a photocopy worker have in common. Is the voice a good guy or a terrorist hatching a plot in retaliation to the bungled American attack? Will Morgan figure it out and manage to foil whatever is being planned? I can’t really say much more about the plot without giving it all away, so you’ll just have to watch it to find out.

From other reviews of Eagle Eye words like ‘preposterous’ and ‘derivative’ have been used. Derivative I can see a bit, there are definitely strong influences from other films, Enemy of the State and The Matrix for a start, but then that’s no bad thing in my book. Preposterous again I can kind of see, but to me it isn’t really a negative. If you like your thrillers grounded in gritty realism then this won’t be for you. If you like a good, fast paced action film with a few twists thrown in, then like me, you might quite like this. Personally I’d say it’s more of an action film than a thriller. After being first introduced to the characters Caruso keeps the pace at maximum overdrive and it never really lets up. You might figure a few of the twists out and tie a few of the plot points together before they’re properly revealed, but as mentioned, I thought this was more of an action film, so the whole film didn’t hang on the plot twists.

All the major actors play their parts well, LaBeouf is stepping into the leading man shoes quite well these days. Picture and sound were both very good, extras are a little sparse, it’s always nice to get deleted scenes, you don’t often get anything decent and certainly two out of the three here are a bit nondescript, but one of them added a little something to the narrative and personally I would’ve included it. There’re the usual behind the scenes features detailing how the movie was made and bizarrely there’s a gag reel, which for a comedy is kind of expected, but for a thriller is a bit strange.

If start watching this film expecting a serious thriller, which it seems to have been marketed as you’ll probably be disappointed. If you can suspend your disbelief, slip your brain into neutral and enjoy an action film with some pretty good chases in and some elements of a thriller then you’ll probably enjoy this.

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