'Eagle Eye' more eye candy than substance
"Eagle Eye" -- a cyberspace thriller with Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan bedeviled by cellphones and pursued by super-cops -- is just too fast for its own good.
Directed by D.J. Caruso, it's full of wild chases, blistering fights and spectacular explosions, and I'd be lying if I told you it wasn't exciting. This movie offers almost nonstop excitement, and that's part of its problem.
As our companions on its wild ride, "Eagle Eye" gives us Jerry Shaw, slacker twin brother of an overachieving U.S. Defense guy who supposedly died in a car crash, and Michelle Monaghan as Rachel Holloman, divorced mom of adorable little Sam (Cameron Boyce), who's set to play trumpet on "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the next State of the Union address.
Both of these average, but very movie-sexy people are suddenly plunged into a mad chase to Washington D. C., with a mysterious female phone-voice giving them instructions on where to go and what to do - after framing Jerry as a terrorist and telling Rachel that Sam will be killed unless she goes along.
On their tail are Southern-fried "Fugitive"-style FBI agent Tom Morgan (Billy Bob Thornton) and saucy New York Air Force lady Zoe Perez (Rosario Dawson).
It's obvious that the filmmakers - including Caruso, four writers and executive producer Steven Spielberg (who inspired the whole thing) - want something more than the usual super-slick roller-coaster ride. They want to make us feel with the characters, and even score a few sociopolitical points.
The movie suggests that our political and military leaders sometimes act rashly and unwisely (hard to argue) and that we're caught in a vast, possibly dangerous cyber communications system that can invade our world on too many levels and might wreak real technological havoc with our lives.
In "Disturbia," Caruso was knocking off Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window." Here, he's lifting from Hitch's "North by Northwest" and "The Man Who Knew Too Much" - throwing in a little "Dr. Strangelove" and "Fail-Safe."
But he should borrow from Hitchcock's and Stanley Kubrick's sense of construction, too. "Eagle Eye" has one slam-bang scene after another -- including a crane smashing though an FBI window, a "French Connection" knockoff car chase, an airport luggage conveyor belt ride and that final shoot-the-works State of the Union address.
Zip! Bang! Crash! Pow! It works for about an hour, but then I wanted a rest. Frankly, the movie, popular as it will probably be, would have been better with half the action scenes replaced by character stuff. Why waste actors this good by throwing them nonstop onto luggage belts and into car wrecks?
"Eagle Eye"
Rating: 2½l stars
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Monaghan, Billy Bob Thornton, Rosario Dawson
Directed by: D.J. Caruso
Other: A DreamWorks release. Rated PG-13 for action, violence and language. 118 minutes.