Popcorn & a Movie

Eagle Eye is about as implausible, circumstantial, unoriginal and unbelievable as a film comes, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun. Like the last collaboration between director DJ Caruso and star Shia LaBeouf (last year’s equally questionable yet entertaining Disturbia), it’s heavily influenced by (aka borrows a lot from) previous films, this time siphoning from the likes of War Games and Enemy of the State. It tiptoes the line separating “familiar” from “derivative,” using its desire for popcorn entertainment glory like a balancing pole.
Still, there are moments in this film when none of this actually matters, when the goal of blockbuster entertainment is accomplished with such rip-roaring authority that it’s darn near impossible to drift away with thoughts of implausibility.
LaBeouf stars as slacker Jerry Shaw, an intelligent but unfocused kid who receives word his super-perfect twin brother is dead. No sooner than brother Shaw is buried, Jerry finds himself the target of an ominous intelligence force. His apartment suddenly resembles Terrorists R’ Us. His bank is literally spitting money at him. Next thing he knows he’s on the run from the government, jumping trains and crashing cars on the orders of a mysterious, omnipresent voice.
And when I mean omnipresent, I mean “controls every aspect of our modern civilization,” as impossibly ludicrous as that sounds. Thankfully, he isn’t in it alone – Rachel (Michelle Monaghan) is forced to follow similar orders from the same GPS-on-steroids voice, or risk losing her only son in “an accident.” Together they travel across half the country, from Chicago to D.C., with only a seemingly all-powerful voice to guide them, never knowing why but always believing that they have no other choice. There’s a higher thematic parallel to be found in that, but then that isn’t really the point to this flick. We’re here to have fun, and there’s plenty of fun to be had.
Shia LaBeouf, regardless of how much you may want to dislike him or write him off as “just a kid,” is as always undeniably charismatic, bringing wit and humanity to an otherwise generic role. And he plays well of Monaghan, a consistently enjoyable actress who’s finally worked her way into a public persona.
But its DJ Caruso’s taught, explosive direction that elevates this flick. Caruso’s a studied thriller hand, loading his cannon with the likes of Taking Lives, Two for the Money and FX’s The Shield before breaking into the role as Spielberg’s new understudy. The development shows – Eagle Eye is as strong as anything Tony Scott or the like are throwing at us these days. Maybe as a comparison to better talents with better material and better history, that isn’t saying much. But for fans of Scott’s Enemy of the State and its brethren, Eagle Eye is an enjoyable way to spend your afternoon.