Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Monaghan, Rosario Dawson, Billy Bob thornton, Michael Chiklis, William Sadler, Anthony Mackie
Director: D.J. Caruso
Runtime: 118 Minutes
Distributor: Dreamworks
Rating: PG-13

Quietly and without fuss Shia LaBeouf is fast on the ascendancy to mega-stardom and could just be the new Teflon Don of Tinseltown in that nothing bad seems to stick. High on a crest of anticipation over Transformers 2, he has already achieved the impossible in bringing respectability to the PG-13 thriller with the sleeper hit Disturbia (over which exec producer Steven Spielberg now finds himself embroiled in a copyright suit). He managed to completely avoid all the finger-pointing fallout from Indiana Jones and the Fridge Nuking Mess. He also seems to be able to leap tall DUI charges in a single bound.

Now here he is at the center of this hi-tech, hi-concept, post 9/11 tale of paranoia that’s blistering pace and excitement level are only exceeded by its ability to confound and ignore all semblance of logic. Indeed its very release suggests a mish-mash of different ideas and muddled priorities that make it hard to categorize – too serious and somber in theme to be a summer event movie and too ridiculous in plot and execution to be part of the Oscar-baiting fall schedule.

Eagle Eye is perplexing in that it’s not so much a genre bender as a scruffy rag doll of a film that’s been stitched together from the best bits of other films from all over the spectrum (The Game, 24, War Games, 2001, Terminator 3) and given an expensive polish. A cringingly familiar opening sequence showing us a botched black-ops mission in the Middle East sets the stage; two obligatory Muslim children play innocently while Michael Chiklis’ conscience-wrangling Defense Secretary studies satellite imagery and decides whether or not to call in a strike.

From there on Eagle Eye essentially takes the initial office phone call scene from The Matrix and drags it out into a whole movie. LaBeouf is Jerry Shaw, a ne’er-do-well copy store employee who returns from his career military twin brother’s funeral to find his apartment filled with enough terrorist contraband to see him win a free vacation to Cuba for a few hundred years. The phone rings and a voice tells him to “run”, guiding him to Michelle Monaghan, a young mother who has also been railroaded by the voice to serve in an apparent assassination plot after her son is threatened.

In a state of perpetual panic, pursued by Billy-Bob Thornton’s DHS task force, they execute a convoluted set of instructions leading to a series of intricate plot turns and elaborate, high-octane set pieces that duly mask plot holes the size of planets with sheer visceral panache. From the word go this film will exhaust you just watching it. The initial car chase following Jerry’s skyscraper prison break is one of the most visually arresting, bone-crunching stunt sequences of destruction laden mayhem conceived in many years and makes the freeway chase from Matrix Reloaded look like a go-kart track.

As it stands the sheer amount of incident and the requisite transformation of Monaghan’s character – from wilting flower to Sarah Conner on steroids – that the story requires you to buy into makes it a tough sell. The decision to round out the film’s own edginess by burying some of the more grown up messages the story offers under cliché sentimentality and standard genre conventions also disappoints. But after a generally disappointing summer, you’re unlikely to see better this year in terms of pure popcorn munching entertainment.

7/10

Neil Pedley - WiFly Film Critic

www.forafewreviewsmore.com

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