There are some times when being a movie reviewer isn't all that much fun.It's called September. Come to think of it, August wasn't all that impressive in its offering of films up for review, either. Traditionally, the end of the summer is a time when studios release the movies they don't really want to release at any other time of the year — it's too late for the blockbuster summer season, and too early to get the hype machines warming up for serious Oscar contenders.
In a sign that movie studios are starting to actually, well, try, things are starting to heat up a bit at the box office as the weather is cooling off.
"Eagle Eye" isn't the answer to a 60-day slump at the theaters, but the white-knuckled chase movie in the guise of a government thriller is at least entertaining enough to put off sleep for a couple of hours. Which is a good thing compared to the options of the last couple months — "The House Bunny" aside, of course.
Shia LeBeouf stars in "Eagle Eye" as Jerry Shaw, an underachieving young man who struggles to pay the rent while employed as a copy assistant at Copy Cabana. One day, Jerry discovers his checking account inexplicably contains more than $750,000. Upon arriving home that night, Jerry finds that his apartment has been stuffed full of packages containing enough weapons to arm a good-sized militia. Seconds later, he gets a phone call from a strange woman who tells him to get out of there before the FBI arrives. He doesn't, and the copy assistant soon finds himself being investigated as a terrorist by the country's largest investigation unit.
Michelle Monaghan is Rachel Holloman, a single mother out for a night of fun with girlfriends when she gets a phone call from the same strange woman, who informs Rachel that her son will die unless she gets into a Porsche Cayenne parked at the end of the block.
Their two worlds collide moments later when they're side by side in the Porsche, fleeing FBI agents and police officers in a frantic chase for their freedom.
Their most aggressive pursuer, Billy Bob Thornton, is Agent Thomas Morgan, a grisly FBI agent with a knack for funny putdowns and condescending putdowns for anyone crossing his path.
Despite having both a first and last name I'm not sure how to pronounce (one of the hazards of the Internet era), Shia LeBeouf is quite likeable here, even for a 32-year-old married male such as myself who obviously doesn't fit into the star's targeted fan demographic, which is probably much younger and of a different gender than myself. As Jerry, he's confident, gentlemanly to old ladies, and often quite humorous.
Jerry and Rachel spend much of the film on the run from the authorities for a reason they don't fully understand, getting instructions on staying ahead of their would-be captors from a source they don't understand.
Some of the action (and there is a lot of it throughout) is actually quite gripping, and the film features some of the loudest, most violent car crashes I've seen. Some of it (a chase scene on an airport's package belts and chutes comes to mind) is less impressive.
As we come to get glimpses of what "Eagle Eye" is about, the film takes on components of movies like "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "The Matrix" and "Mission: Impossible" trilogies.
Not that it's as memorable as any of these, mind you. "Eagle Eye" relies on loud, blurring action to jolt the audience, a ploy that often works in that fleeting respect but not one that makes for all that memorable of a viewing experience. When the movie tries to work in a serious political angle at the end (suggesting that the surveillance measurements implemented by our government in the name of security are actually posing a threat to our way of life), it's definitely going for more influence than it has any right to expect us to give it.
But hey, at least I didn't fall asleep. Here's hoping the new season's offerings aren't reason to seriously consider hibernation.
Joel Sensenig is news editor of the Review Times.