EAGLE EYE (2008)

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"The best movie of its kind since War Games. So what if the villain is sort of ridiculous? I’ve seen better ideas executed with far less energy. And the film’s mantic pace accounts for a lot of its charm. "

I'm not sure what to think of D.J. Caruso. His first film floored me. I loved The Salton Sea. It was a perfect mix of black, scatological humor and jazz riffing noir. It moved across the screen like a prolonged lightening bolt, and continued to amaze for two hours straight. It was one of those odd beats, belted out in an unrecognizable tune. Each moment was unpredictable, and you could never quite sense where the story was headed. For what its worth, The Salton Sea remains my favorite D.J. Caruso film. And I have to wonder what sort of hack influence Steven Spielberg has had over his directing style.

After dabbling in series television with stints on Dark Angel and Smallville, D.J. made two high profile films that were sort of crappy. Taking Lives, starring Angelina Jolie and Ethan Hawke, had one of the worst fake pregnancy ending of all time. And the Al Pacino gambling picture Two for the Money was goofy trouble. D.J. followed those resume rebounders up with Disturbia, hooking his wagon to Spielberg's train for an obvious slow burn that worked as a Hitchcockian skin tug of bedded-up suspense. The man's once promising future seemed to take a nosedive, and there isn't much in that film that looks like his original voice. Heck, he's even getting sued for ripping off Rear Window. Which is bunkish. But if you get my drift, he's sailed off down a different sea of port.

Now comes his fifth major motion picture, and again, it looks like nothing he's done before. Instead of building suspense or offering any type of bizarre humor, Caruso drives the Jerry Bruckheimer route with both hands firmly on the wheel. And proves that he, too, can smash up cars and kill innocent bystanders with the best of them. After the tedious Disturbia, I doubted Caruso could sustain this sort of frenzied pace for two hours, but Eagle Eye never slows down to take a breath. It's like Run, that old Patrick Dempsey movie from the early 1990s, only this sucker is pumped full of steroids and filtered through a Plexiglas straw. It's a kinetic bump and toss that had my eyes watering at the midway point from strain.

Seriously. It's been a while since we've seen a really good car chase. Wanted hit in June with one that couldn't possible be topped in a year's time. Right? Nope, here comes Caruso with this stinging ace up his sleeve. And, much like Wanted's rollercoaster opener, it comes as the saving grace of this film. The build-up to the Beamer pursuit is classic in its own right. The director never really lets us know what is going on. We sense everything from the characters' own perspective. And it proves to be a kinetic hop, serving the best gut punch in its full duration. I think it beats the car chase scene in Wanted, simply because director Timur Bekmambetov had little else to follow up that amazing stunt with. He provided a slightly boring backstory after the climax. Caruso doesn't do that here. After the cops pursue Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan through a screaming junkyard full of crushing lifter cranes, he refuses to give his two leads a chance to change their underpants. (Seriously, I'm amazed that the participants that live through this mass of wrecked iron are able to leave their crushed cars unshaken.)The film is really just one big set piece after the next, and it jumps like a bean through many harrowing dangers. While the overall theme plays soft, like last summer's Live Free or Die Hard, it doesn't mind staging a tunnel crash that will remind you of the time Bruce Willis and Justin Long dodged a flying SUV. There's a remote controlled airplane stunt involved in the proceedings that make it an edgier go, and the film isn't really interested in letting you catch a rest. But even with its unique nods, it still has a similar vibe to other, better films in the genre.

The story is a little ambiguous. The script doesn't want you second-guessing its intentions, so that job is left up to its two leads. Shai and Michelle do a great job of running. It seems like Shia has been sprinting through one big cinematic marathon since starring in I, Robot a couple of years ago. Heck, if Robert Zemeckis was casting Forrest Gump today, you know ol' LaBeouf would be cast in the lead role. And I have no doubt that his upcoming Hollywood memoirs will be entitled, "And I Was Running!" Luckily for us, there's a good reason why these two are hoofing it across the country. The espionage and assassination plot that these two are thrown into is quite the inventive shaker. It'd be no fun for me to ruin it for you, as it comes tag with one of those, "Oh, shit! That's pretty fucking cool!" moments. Lets just say that the five credited screenwriters earned their paycheck.

What you might not know from watching the trailers is that this film deals with Big Brother issues, and the narrative spine proves to be a hotbed of discussion going into and coming out of the theater. In the film, a new law has been passed where all cell phones are opened to government ears. They are allowed to hear everything we're saying. And deep beneath the pentagon, on some hidden fourteenth floor, there is a digitized map of the United States that can pinpoint where you are and who you are jibber jabbering to at any given moment. This idea sets up a plot about cyber terrorism, and it's the only thing that allows our main characters a chance to survive. Like some goofy Disney movie from the late 1970s, Shia plays twin brothers. The dumb one gets caught up in the smart one's terrorist plans, and that's about all I can say about that. Except, if made twenty years ago, Kurt Russell would have been the lead and this would have been a comedy. Michelle Monaghan? She'd have been played by a chimpanzee. See, nothing ever really changes except for the times. And its quite creepy watching Shai as he stares into an open casket at his own face.

I'd like to talk more about the bad guy in the film. But that would be impossible, as it's the main selling point and secret of the film. Who is responsible for these heinous deeds? And Why? Well, that's really for you to discover. I'll just say that s/he is a bygone product of the Hal era, and owes its fashion sense to WOPR. Yeah, its one of those types of films. But it's done very well, and it's been a long time coming. Lets just hope D.J. Caruso doesn't get sued again. It's odd, because he does steal the entire climax from another Hitchcock film. Like Brian DePalma's reworking of the Odessa Steps sequence in The Untouchables, Caruso recreates an ancient scene shot for shot, and he's probably relieved that it comes from one of Alfred's more obscure films (again, telling you which one would ruin the climatic ending).

Most of Eagle Eye's action rests on Shai and Michelle's shoulders. While the film has a great supporting cast, they are severally underused. Billy Bob Thornton doesn't really even look interested in being here, and you sort of want to cheer when his character bites the big piss biscuit in the sky. Rosario Dawson is a pleasant face, but she ends up being inconsequential to the overall proceedings. And the great Michael Chiklis only serves as a bookend to the latent storyline. D.J. could have very easily made this with the entire focus on his two leads. They are the only ones we really care about. And yeah, we do care about them. In less proficient hands, this could have been a big bit of gooey slice of cheese.

While the overall state of the film is pretty goofy, it is good, clean fun. And I was certainly entertained for the better part of two hours. Eagle Eye is the best film of its kind since War Games. And it gets a moderate Whoop-Doo!

(All of B. Alan Orange's reviews are based on the Boo! or Whoop-doo! evaluation system.)