Screen Rant » eagle eye

Eagle Eye Blu-ray Review

Vic Holtreman — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 02:41:55 +0000

I don’t have a standard format or a catchy heading for Blu-ray/DVD reviews so I’ll just get right into a short review of Eagle Eye on Blu-ray (or BD as the studios call it, though I don’t think that’ll catch on). Overall Eagle Eye was an entertaining popcorn action flick which stated out strong but became progressively more ridiculous as it went on.

Sometimes a second viewing leaves me with a bit of a different opinion of a film and in this case I was able to watch it in HD in the comfort of my own home. Did that change my opinion of it? Not really very much (see my original theatrical review here) but I will reiterate that it makes for a fun hour and a half which was enhanced by the awesome Hi-Def picture and killer surround sound. This was one of the first films I watched on my Blu-Ray player and the picture was incredible. A friend of mine commented that Blu-ray looks “more real than reality” and that’s a pretty good description.

While some Blu-ray films are the equivalent of the earliest DVD transfers back in the day and don’t look much better than DVD, that is not the case here. The picture is impressive and there is plenty of eye-candy here to take advantage of the format.

Here are the special features, of which there are a ton:

Deleted scenes, including a ludicrous alternate ending that will make you laugh your head off. Thank goodness they didn’t use it.
Asymmetrical Warfare: The making of Eagle Eye: Interviews with Caruso, LaBeouf and others as they speak about the making of the film.
Eagle Eye on Location: Washington, D.C.: A look at the main shooting location of Washington D.C. and why that location was chosen.
Is My Cell Phone Spying on Me?: This feature discusses what we give up in regards to privacy in order to use the latest technology and the implications.
Shall We Play A Game?: Director Caruso sits down with his mentor John Badham, the director of War Games.
Gag Reel: Standard gag reel footage.
Road Trip: On Location with the Cast and Crew: This feature has comments by the cast and crew as they travel to different locations.
Photo Gallery: A collection of images from the film.
Theatrical Trailer: Self-explanatory.

What’s missing? Any sort of director’s commentary to listen to while the movie is playing, which is kind of odd considering the plethora of other features on this disc.

Despite the silliness that infects the film as it goes on, I’d have to say this actually has somewhat of a “repeat view” factor – something you might want to pull out once in a great while when you’re in the mood for a popcorn flick that looks and sounds great on your home theater.

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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: October 19, 2008

Niall Browne — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 16:33:44 +0000

Sunday again and that means that it is time for the Weekend Movie News Wrap Up.

This week:

We see who is top of the box office; Kevin Smith ups his budget and goes into space; Brad Pitt goes on an Odyssey and plays an Unfair Game; Liam Neeson and Christina Ricci do Life and Ronin zooms to the small screen.

Box Office

Marky Mark Wahlberg is the box office champion with Max Payne. The film should manage about $20 million over the weekend giving 20^th Century Fox their first solid hit in months.

Oliver Stone’s W bucked the political movie trend by making a solid bit of cash. Grossing around $12MM for the weekend the film should be a modest hit. Considering the current political overkill going on in the press this is a considerable coup.

The Secret Life of Bees had a modest opening too, and should match the gross of the Bush film.

Meanwhile Sex Drive stiffed it on its opening with around $3.5 million. Could it be the death of the teen sex comedy?

Beverly Hills Chihuahua is showing legs with about another $11 million barked up by Monday morning. Meanwhile Ridley Scott’s costly Body Of Lies should manage another $7 million, the same as Eagle Eye.

Movie News

1. Kevin Smith will write direct and no doubt cameo in a $50 million space comedy. The Weinstein Company has read part of the script and seems interested in forking out the cash.

Smith has this to say:

“The moment someone steps out of the spaceship, it’s going to cost a little more.
All the relationships in the flicks I’ve done have been done before, have been either a guy falling for a girl or two dudes hanging out in a ‘bromantic’ comedy. I wanted to explore a father and son.”

The film won’t be made until after Smith’s Red State.

Expect at least one Uranus joke.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

2. Speaking of space – Brad Pitt will star in a futuristic retelling of Homer’s The Odyssey which will be directed by George Miller.

Pitt previously starred in an adaptation of Homer’s The Iliad, which became Troy.

Expect no Uranus jokes in this one.

Source: Variety

3. Speaking of Brad Pitt – the star may appear in Steven Zaillian’s adaptation of Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. The film is set to be directed by David Frankel. According to Variety:

“The Book’s subject is Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane, who assembled a contending baseball club on a shoestring budget by employing a sophisticated computer-based analysis to draft players.”

Source: Variety

4. Liam Neeson and Christina Ricci will star in After. Life (yes, the “.” supposed to be there).

Neeson will play a funeral director who is contacted by a woman (Ricci) who is caught between life and death (much like her career following Speed Racer). Agnieszka Vosloo will helm the film.

Source: Variety

5. The 1998 Robert De Niro film Ronin is coming to the small screen. The film which will likely be shot in Europe (like the film) will be co-financed by the BBC. The original film was helmed by John Frankenheimer and it played a bit like a middle-age Mission: Impossible, so a show should (or could) be interesting.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

That’s it for this week – see you at the movies!

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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: October 12, 2008

Niall Browne — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 18:43:58 +0000

It’s that time of the week again.

This week we see who is riding high at the box office; Hex marks the spot for Josh Brolin; Eric Bana is Armored; Frank Darabont isn’t a Law Abiding Citizen and we discover what Robert Downey Jr looks like as Sherlock Holmes.

Box Office

This week Beverly Hills Chihuahua remained top dog with a second week gross of around $18 million. Frightener flick Quarantine opened strongly in second place with a solid $14 million, while Ridley Scott’s Leonardo DiCaprio/ Russell Crowe starrer Body of Lies bowed to $13 million. That’s gotta hurt. Scott, Crowe and Di Caprio don’t come cheap, so the film will have to scoop some major award nods to help it make some solid bank. Having said that; with the film’s pedigree there should be some big international numbers to help off-set the lacklustre US gross. The Dennis Quaid/ Rob Brown (no relation) inspirational sports film The Express dropped the ball with a mild $5 million weekend. The Bill Murray kids Pic City of Ember tanked with a pathetic $3 million gross. A shame really – but its failure might just make Ghostbusters 3 happen. Meanwhile Shia La Boeuf’s Eagle Eye has flown to $70 million.

Movie News

1. Word on the street is that former Goonie and No Country for Old Men star Josh Brolin is apparently locked and loaded to play Jonah Hex in a film adaptation of the comic book of the same name, that is to be titled…er…Jonah Hex.

Earlier in the year Thomas Jane pitched for the role – even going so far as to produce photographs to persuade the filmmakers. Alas, they don’t seem to have taken the bait.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Thomas Jane ain’t going to be happy.

Source: Holywood Elsewhere

2. One time Hulk Eric Bana will star in Armored, a remake of the French film Le Convoyeur.

The adaptation was written by David Ayer and Andrew Kevin Walker. According to Variety:

“(The) Story follows a man who takes a job for an armored car company and ingratiates himself with his co-workers, who trust him enough to make him part of their heist plans. Unbeknownst to his colleagues, the man had his own motives for taking the job.”

F. Gary Grey will helm the pic, which will net Bana $7.5 million. However, the deal does rely on scheduling – the film starts shooting on April 1^st (that’s no joke), but Bana will have press duties for Star Trek in May.

Oh, and the film should more than likely undergo a title change!

Source: Variety

3. Forrest Whitaker will star in and direct a biopic of Louis Armstrong. The film titled It’s a Wonderful World (original) hopes to follow in the critical and box office success of Walk the Line and Ray.

Sounds like solid casting. Let’s just hope when Forrest comes down to editing the movie he doesn’t feel that we have all the time in the world. Ahem.

Source: Variety

4. Wanna see Robert Downey Jr as Sherlock Holmes?

Does anybody else think Chaplin?

Source: Just Jared

That’s it for this week. See you at the movies.

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Eagle Eye Review

Vic Holtreman — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 04:00:41 +0000

Short version: Eagle Eye starts out strong as an exciting action/suspense movie but eventually the implausibilities of the story catch up with it.

Screen Rant reviews Eagle Eye

I hate reviewing movies like this one because you just can’t win. Eagle Eye is one of those films that you can review three different ways from Sunday. You could say it’s “a gripping thrill ride,” “a ridiculous action film with delusions of grandeur,” or “a middle of the road action movie” all depending on your particular point of view or even the mood you’re in when you sit down in the theater.

This review has minor spoilers, but does not give away the ending. If you plan on seeing this I really encourage you to stay away from anything that might give it away including spoilerish reviews, radio talk show hosts, etc., if you don’t want the movie ruined for yourself!

So no matter which way I go, people will come out of the woodwork to say I’m nuts, a jerk, or I shouldn’t be reviewing movies. Luckily I’m from New Jersey and I can handle it, so… bring it!

At the start of Eagle Eye, my thought was “woah, this is going to be an intense, kick-ass movie.” The opening scene is in a military command center, where an area somewhere in the Middle East (presumably Iraq) is being monitored by both soldiers on the ground and high-tech aerial surveillance. They think they have the equivalent of Osama bin Laden in their sights, but according to a computer analysis there is only a 51% probability that it is him, and he and a group of men are either at a burial or a weapons cache.

A decision has to be made whether to hit the group via a missile attack or abort. The commanding officer and the President both agree it’s worth the risk to take them out, but Defense Secretary Callister (Michael Chiklis) disagrees. He is obviously overruled and the strike is executed.

Cut to a little poker game between Jerry Shaw (Shia LaBeouf), where we see demonstrated that he is a slick, fast talker as he relieves his friends of their cash in a very funny scene. Unfortunately his charming personality hasn’t been enough to raise his station in life as we see him walk out into his job as a “sales associate” at Copy Barn (think Kinkos).

He’s pretty much dead broke and lives in a squalid little apartment. Turns out he has a twin brother who died very recently and was the complete opposite of him. Overacheiver, brilliant, military academy, yadda yadda yadda, while Jerry is basically a drifter, estranged from his father (William Sadler) who is disgusted by his directionless existence.

When Jerry returns home he hits up the ATM machine and finds he has a balance of $750,000. Of course, he’s a bit freaked, especially when the machine spits out thousands of dollars at him (nevermind the ATM limit of $500/day). When he arrives at his apartment it is stocked to the gills with everything a terrorist would order from The Home Shopping Channel: Hundreds of pounds of ammonium nitrate, military night vision goggles, scopes, automatic weapons, tech manuals for military aircraft… you name it.

And this is when he receives the mysterious phone call telling him he has less than a minute to get out of his apartment because the FBI is on its way. Being the anti-establishment, rebellious guy he is, he tells her to pack sand. Unfortunately she wasn’t kidding and the FBI busts in and arrests him.

We see him back in interrogation where agent Thomas Morgan (Billy Bob Thornton) questions him. Basically ol’ Jerry is hosed until a high level FAX comes in stating that he needs to get his one phone call. You guessed it – the mystery lady is on the line and manages to engineer his very elaborate escape.

And then we have Rachel Holloman (Michelle Monaghan, who seems to be channeling Sandra Bullock), single mother of little Sam (cute little guy Cameron Boyce). She’s sending him off to Washington D.C. to perform with his school band for the President and cabinet. She also receives a phone call from mystery woman, threatening that her son’s train will be derailed if she does not do as she is told.

Eventually Rachel and Jerry come together and are sent on a mysterious mission of which they know nothing more than whatever their current task is (which is usually trying to get away from the authorities, leading us to believe that it’s nothing good).

The film also stars Rosario Dawson as Zoe, an Air Force investigative-type and was directed by D.J. Caruso, who previously directed Disturbia (which also starred Shia) and Two for the Money (which starred Al Pacino). Caruso actually does an excellent job with the look of the film, coaxing a “grown-up” performance from Shia and with plenty of great action sequences. My only beef with the action, specifically an early car chase is once again “shaken camera syndrome.” The scenes would have been “actiony” enough without the addition of camera shake and rapid sway. I actually would have enjoyed them more without the additional movement – made it harder to see what the heck was going on.

I think audiences will respond well to this as we’re coming out of an action movie “dead zone” where there hasn’t been anything adrenaline-inducing at the movies for a few weeks. Eagle Eye DOES have plenty of suspense and action, but the problem was that it started out vaguely realistic and became more implausible as the film went on. I always enjoy Billy Bob Thornton on the big screen and even Rosario Dawson did an admirable job in her role.

However, the level of control over surroundings and planning for unforeseen circumstances by the mystery woman eventually (to me) wandered over the line into the absurd. There was also no shortage of people getting out of cars that had been totaled with barely a scratch.

You’ll either think the reveal is awesome, or it will take you out of the movie (for me it did the latter). I kept wanting to enjoy the ride, but the absurdities of the film and plot holes kept nagging at the back of my mind.

There was also the issue of the film being bracketed by “serious” scenes/messages at the beginning and end of the movie, which didn’t really fit with the over the top middle.

BTW, if you want to bring kids from around 10 years old and up and you don’t mind a few “S-bombs” the film isn’t TOO violent and there’s nothing suggestive that’ll make you want to cover their eyes.

Overall I’d say Eagle Eye was a decently fun ride that took itself a little to seriously considering the overall story. It might serve to tide you over until James Bond returns on November 14th in Quantum of Solace.

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New Eagle Eye Trailer

Vic Holtreman — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 22:46:41 +0000

Check out the brand new trailer for Eagle Eye, starring current hot-ticket Shia Lebeouf and Michelle Monaghan.

Here’s the official description:

“Two strangers become the pawns of a mysterious woman they have never met, but who seems to know their every move. Realizing they are being used to further her diabolical plot, they must work together to outwit the woman before she has them killed.”

Based on this trailer, it looks pretty good…

I realize it’s not related, but fully the first third of the movie gave me a Matrix vibe, but without the Matrix – if that makes any sense. Someone calling on the phone, telling our hero what is about to happen seconds from now, with very explicit instructions. Of course this is a very different concept but it borrows more than a wee bit from that film IMHO.

Still, it looks like a pretty compelling (if hard to believe) concept – and Shia seems to be a decent actor so who knows? This might turn out to be as decent as the trailer makes it look.

Eagle Eye opens on September 26th, 2008

Official movie site: EagleEyeMovie.com

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