Director D.J. Caruso
Jerry Shaw (played by Shia LaBeouf) is a simple American guy, a standard loser, who lives his live without any attempts to make it any better 's while his twin brother is a classic careerist with a perfect education and a perfect service record. However, his brother dies under mysterious circumstances, and right after the funeral Jerry gets his first phone call. "Jerry Shaw, you have been activated. Your compliance is vital," says an unfamiliar female voice.
About the same time single mother Rachel Holloman (Michelle Monaghan), who just put her son on the train to Washington D.C. to play at a concert in the White House, receives another phone call and the same voice asks, "Rachel Holloman, look in the window. Would you risk your life for your son?" From that moment the plot develops very quickly; shifting scenes from car chases to bombings, shootings and other accessories of a good action movie. It is impossible to move your eyes from the screen until the very last minute.
While Jerry and Rachel are following all the guidelines of the mysterious woman, the FBI and U.S. Secret services are in hot pursuit, believing that they are planning a terrorist attack. However, it's soon made clear that everything is not so simple.
Their enigmatic caller, first assumed to be nothing more than a prankster by Jerry, proves to be very powerful; she is able to change the traffic lights, operate any machinery or equipment and actually kill those who disobey. "She got hundreds of firearms into my apartment, she added $750,000 to my bank account, she helped me escape from a high security holding in the FBI 's in a way I'm not even going to try to explain because it sounds so crazy. Yeah, I'm pretty sure she can derail a train. She could turn a train into a talking duck if she wanted to", Jerry tells Rachel, after she asks what he thinks about the woman's threat to derail the train on which her son is traveling.
The plot's idea could be branded an "IT professional's nightmare" 's like a perfectly planned system gone out of control, and is actually so flawlessly smart that it can make and implement its own decisions. Of course it might not be the invention of the bicycle, and there were movies with similar or even very similar features, but this one was originally planned by Spielberg the Great. Spielberg didn't direct as he was concentrating on his final Indiana Jones instalment, but still stayed on as an executive producer of 'Eagle Eye'. Spielberg's replacement, Caruso, has proven once again that he is able to make a movie which is watched in one breath.
The actors are great as well. Shia LaBeouf is inimitable and showed very good acting ability, while Michelle Monaghan very earnestly played the mother-above-all character; truly a woman and citizen, secondary to her parenting duties. Meanwhile Billy Bob Thornton, who played FBI agent Thomas Morgan, is probably the most famous and experienced of all the young actors but is by no means outshone by his younger co-stars; his on screen presence adding an extra dimension to the blockbuster.
'Eagle Eye' is two hours of adrenalin in the cinema and many hours thinking afterwards. A good action thriller, with a full arsenal of special effects, a great screenplay and an outstanding plot 's this one is definitely worth watching on the big screen.
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