Eagle Eye Special Edition (2008)

"It's a mile-a-minute thriller.  Gene Shalit, NBC-TV
"A fun techno romp, mixing great bang for your buck with insights into the dangers of restricting civil liberties.  Ian Freer, Empire
"Good, manic fun plus a heavy dose of political intrigue...  Josh Rosenblatt, Austin Chronicle
"Monaghan gives a solid performance, and Billy Bob Thornton has sarcastically funny bits as an FBI agent.  Lawrence Toppman, Charlotte Observer
"Electrifying! The most exhilarating movie of this year!  Shawn Edwards, FOX-TV

Editor's Note D.J. Caruso (TAKING LIVES, DISTURBIA) directs this tale of intrigue that utilizes technology as a character. Jerry Shaw (Shia LaBeouf) is a slacker who works at Copy Cabana--until he returns home after receiving bad news about his brother to find his apartment filled with incriminating packages, and receives a phone call from a mysterious woman advising him to vacate the premises immediately. Single mom Rachel Holloman (Michelle Monaghan) also finds herself at the mercy of the mystery caller after seeing her young son off on an overnight school trip. Soon, these two strangers find themselves caught in a tangled web, taking directions from the female caller who makes it very clear that if they disobey her, there will be consequences for them and their families. They have no control over the course that's been set in motion. But the real question is, who is making these calls and what is their ultimate goal? Filled with explosive action, car crashes, and high-tech hi-jinx, this thriller moves at breakneck speed. Technology is the co-star here: electronic signs relay the next move to Jerry and Rachel, traffic lights change as needed, and strangers' cell phones ring with directions. The strong supporting human cast includes Billy Bob Thornton as a hard-nosed FBI agent who is investigating LaBeouf for terrorism, and Michael Chiklis as the Secretary of Defense. Rosario Dawson, Ethan Embry, and Anthony Mackie also star in the film, for which Steven Spielberg served as executive producer. LaBeouf remains an interesting young actor, able to move from action sequences to emotional moments with ease, and Monaghan protects her screen son with a mother's ferocity.

	Michelle Monaghan
	Billy Bob Thornton
	Shia LaBeouf
	Rosario Dawson
	Anthony Mackie
	Michael Chiklis
	Edward L. McDonnell - Executive Producer
	Brian Tyler - Composer
	Patrick Crowley - Producer
	Hillary Seitz - Screenwriter
	Dan McDermott - Story
	Roberto Orci - Producer
	Dan McDermott - Screenwriter
	John Glenn - Screenwriter
	Travis Wright - Screenwriter
	Steven Spielberg - Executive Producer
	Jim Page - Editor
	Dariusz Wolski - Director of Photography
	Alex Kurtzman - Producer
	D.J. Caruso - Director

Empire
4 stars out of 5 -- "EAGLE EYE delivers practically non-stop action....Caruso orchestrates his spills with a satisfying physicality..." 11/01/2008 p.72

ReelViews 5 of 10
Eagle Eye has all the earmarks of a once substantive script that was poked, prodded, cut, and crimped until all semblance of intelligence was wrung out of it. It's still possible to see the cautionary message underlying the movie: something about the danger of Big Brother and the result of giving computers too much control. The former was more than adequately explored by George Orwell. The latter has formed the fulcrum of countless science fiction stories, including Star Trek episodes, 2001, and this year's best animated feature, WALL*E. It feels almost unclean to write a review for something as bad as Eagle Eye and include those fine titles...It would be nice to see Shia LaBeouf appear in a movie that gives him a chance to act. Lately, all he has been doing is standing around playing a foreground ornament to a bunch of special effects...The average positive review of this film will remark that "it's a fun ride if you turn off your brain." I'm not sure why anyone would want to turn off their brain, since that's the organ where the body's pleasure centers are located. Even granting that, when it comes to dumb popcorn movies, Eagle Eye is nowhere near the top. What makes the film even more disappointing is its veneer of social commentary about nonstop surveillance and the omnipotence of computers. These things are red herrings that, like Caruso's frantically edited chase scenes, are designed to camouflage the bankruptcy of the writing. Should this film be a huge box office success, it will stand as a sad testament to how low the bar for cinematic entertainment has been set. - James Berardinelli

Chicago Sun-Times 6 of 10
The word preposterous is too moderate to describe "Eagle Eye." This film contains not a single plausible moment after the opening sequence, and that's borderline. It's not an assault on intelligence. It's an assault on consciousness. I know, I know, I liked "Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor," but that film intended to be absurd. "Eagle Eye" has real cars and buildings and trains and CNN and stuff, and purports to take place in the real world...You might like it, actually. Lots of people will. It involves relentless action: chases involving planes, trains, automobiles, buses. Hundreds of dead. Enough crashes to stock a junkyard. Lots of stuff being blowed up real good. Two heroes who lack any experience with violence but somehow manage to stick up an armored car at gunpoint, walk on board an unguarded military transport plane and penetrate to the ultra-secret 29th-floor basement of the Pentagon...If you're looking for a narrative that makes much sense, "Eagle Eye" lacks one. It's essentially a lot of CGI and stunt work, all stuck together in a row. LaBeouf is a good young actor, but you wouldn't discover that here. I barely had time to observe that he resembles an underweight John Cusack when he was off and running, as Jerry and Rachel became elements in effect scenes. The movie obviously intends to resemble and inspire a video game, and at that it is slick. I look forward to film students using their clickers to work out the average shot length. I'm predicting less than three seconds. So to summarize, "Eagle Eye" is great at all the things I object to, and I admit it. But I didn't enjoy it. - Roger Ebert