View from 'the gods'

The trailer left me with two threads: a man appears framed for terrorism to coerce him to rob an armoured car; a woman’s son is threaten, to coerce her into assisting with the robbery. But to what end? Who’s is the calm assertive voice on the phone, who gives our reluctant puppets their instructions?

I was intrigued and made a mental note to see it when it came out of a media format that suited me.

This is a Trailer Review

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This film is set Washington DC. It is Die Hard 4.0 meets 2001.

Jerry Shaw (Shia LaBeouf) a gifted but undriven young man is suddenly pitched into some weird terrorist intrigue, when he is framed for terrorism and then gets instructions from a woman who can communicate with him by any networked device. Likewise Rachel Holloman (Rachel Monaghan), a struggling solo mother, is pitched into the conspiracy, when unseen forces threaten her son; she too, get instructions from the woman at the end of the phone.

Our reluctant heros/villians take a little while to adjust to their new role as modern day ‘Bonny and Clydes.’ The early segment is dominated by the calm voice of their ‘controller.’

It turns out that the voice belongs to a computer, and our two reluctants are its proxies. It becomes clear after awhile, that the computer wants them to blow something up. The question in my mind for the second half of them film: was it the President, or the computer itself? – to find out see the film 🙂

Eagle Eye is just a little formula. The two protagonists don’t really invoke much sympathy – LaBeouf comes accross very well as the twin who lived in the shadow of his much much more capable brother all his life; Monaghan does her best – but is not given much time to work with – strong editing puts the main focus is on LaBeouf’s character. There is a computer taking control of all the networked devices. Democracy is in danger. There is even time for some romance.

The Major Bowman character was just too much of a ‘hat tip to 2001’; and as if that wasn’t enough director D j Caruso has him (Anthony Mackie) and Agent Zoe Perez (Rosario Dawson) pulling hard drives out of racks.

Billy Bob Thornton plays FBI Senior Agent in Charge Toby Grant. It is his job to apprehend Jerry and Rachel. He makes the most of it.

Still, a reasonable diversion for two hours.

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