17. Eagle Eye

Story
While I certainly don’t want to give away the big "twist," I can safely say Eagle Eye is all about big, bad technology--or the pitfalls of having too much technology at our fingertips and how it can turn into a Big Brother situation. As it goes, we meet copy store employee Jerry Shaw (Shia LaBeouf) and single mom Rachel Holloman (Michelle Monaghan), two strangers who suddenly find themselves in a whole mess of trouble after they receive a mysterious phone call from a woman they have never met. She dictates they carry out a series of dangerous tasks, and if they refuse, she will either kill them or the ones they love--and of course shows proof when they do. Who is this ominous woman? How can she control cell phones, trains, traffic lights, construction cranes, electrical power poles and just about anything else she wants to, at any time? And why is she targeting Jerry and Rachel? Ah, watch as the web unweaves
Acting
LaBeouf and Monaghan are two very appealing young actors, who both have a lot of potential in their burgeoning careers. Of course, LaBeouf is now running the risk of doing too many big-budgeted, action movies; he should remember he was once a pretty good kid actor. Monaghan, too, showed great promise in films such as Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Gone Baby Gone but has gone the cheap ingénue route with the likes of Made of Honor and The Heartbreak Kid. And now Eagle Eye, which unfortunately doesn’t do much to boost their resumes. Still, they manage to make the film watchable with the sparks between them. The rest of the cast are fairly wasted, however, including Rosario Dawson as a tough-nut Air Force investigator and Michael Chiklis as U.S. Defense Secretary. The only other cast member worth watching is Billy Bob Thornton as an FBI agent tracking Jerry and Rachel. He has all the best lines.
Direction
Director D.J. Caruso, who cut his teeth in the thriller department with last year’s sleeper Disturbia, goes for the full-action this time--and does a pretty good job, considering. It might not be up to the Bourne Ultimatum level but the car chases are exciting and inventive. A giant crane picking up a cop car and tossing it away in a garbage dump is a particularly clever way to dispose of an automobile. But Eagle Eye fails to engage the audience into caring much about the characters because you are too busy trying to figure out what the hell is going on and why these random people are involved. And when you do find out, you're still not convinced it was all necessary in the end. Maybe it'll play better on DVD.