"Eagle Eye" * 1/2 (118 minutes)

Thursday September 25, 2008

What a mess! The opening sequence is the only recommendation I can give. And with ticket prices averaging around $10 a pop, those 5 minutes are hardly worth your hard earned cash as the remaining 113 minutes of this typical Hollywood dreck looks more like a bad Jerry Buckheimer production (and there a quite of few of those) than Steven Spielberg. Director D.J. Caruso (who did last year's modest winner "Disturbia") crams more car crashes and insane improbability into this monstrosity that you'll laugh out loud so many times those seated around you might think this is a comedy-if they aren't rolling in the aisle themselves. Caruso once again employs rising Hollywood star Shia LeBeouf (whose last film was "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull") as an everyday schmo who is directed by a mysterious female voice over his cell phone to obey her every command or risk instant death. The power behind the voice also has a way to control every electronic device (and even trash compactors!) on the planet allowing every threat to possibly come to fruition. The film utilizes a script by 4 screenwriters, including Dan McDermott (who wrote the story, as well as the screenplay for the "wonderful" 2006 remake of "The Omen"), while including a noisy totally annoying soundtrack by Brian Tyler. And it shamelessly copies from several classics, such as "2001-A Space Odyssey", "1984", and "The Manchurian Candidate", to name just a few. The requisite female companion is played admirably by Michelle Monaghan ("Gone Baby Gone") who is enlisted into the outrageous goings on, with Billy Bob Thornton playing a relentless FBI agent chasing LeBeouf at the same time thinking he is a terrorist. Such suspense, such action, such crap!