Last summer, when director D.J. Carusso and poppy actor Shia LaBeouf teamed up to make Disturbia, I thought to myself, “How lame.” I actually put off screening the movie until the night before it opened. But when I saw it, I was caught off guard by how fun the movie was, how it went from funny awkward teen comedy to dark disturbing thriller in a heartbeat. I loved it. And when I found out they were reteaming for Eagle Eye, I couldn’t have been more excited.
Eagle Eye is about this 20-something kid, Jerry Shaw (LaBeouf). He’s kind of a mess up. His life has no direction and he hasn’t done anything with it so far. He’s the complete opposite of his active military intelligence twin brother. When Jerry’s twin, Ethan, is killed in an accident, odd things start happening.
After leaving Ethan’s funeral, when he stops by a bank to deposit a check, his previously empty account balance shows he’s up hundreds of thousands of dollars. When he returns home to his apartment, he finds it filled with bomb-making supplies, weapons and books of military secrets. Then he gets a phone call from a mysterious woman who will give him instructions for the rest of the movie. She tells him that if he doesn’t, he’ll be set up as a terrorist and killed.
At the exact same time, Rachel (Michelle Monaghan), a single mom who has just sent her son away on a train to perform in a D.C. concert, is contacted by the mysterious woman on the phone and told that if she doesn’t cooperate, her son’s train will be derailed. Before long, Jerry and Rachel end up working together as pawns in this high-stakes game of technological cat and mouse.
The first hour of Eagle Eye is filled with tension, fun and lots of great action sequences. But the second hour tanks into cliché and predictability as the questions to the story begin to be revealed. The final product of the film is a horrible blend of Enemy of the State and Stealth with plenty of stolen ideas from Live Free or Die Hard.
If you were planning on seeing Eagle Eye this week, save yourself the time and money. And if you’re just dying to see something good in the theaters, my recommendation is still last week’s pick, Ghost Town.
