There seems little doubt that over the last two years, Hollywood movers and shakers have been promoting Shia LeBeouf as the next big male star. Director/producer Steven Spielberg cast him in 2007’s Disturbia, which became a solid box office hit. He was then cast in Transformers, which made a boatload of money worldwide. If we didn’t already think Spielberg thought Shia was talented, he co-starred in the fourth Indiana Jones film, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, with George Lucas all but assuring he will be the next Indy if a new set of films are made. In the midst of all that, LeBeouf reteamed with director D.J. Caruso (he helmed Disurbia), in 2008 to film Eagle Eye.
Written by John Glenn (The Lazarus Project), Travis Wright, Hillary Seitz (Insomnia), and Dan McDermott (I can’t believe it took four people to write this movie.), Eagle Eye stars Shia LeBeouf as Jerry Shaw, a Stanford dropout who gets caught up in an international incident after his twin brother Ethan (also Shia LeBeouf) dies in a car accident.
Jerry comes home from work one day and finds a boatload of terrorist supplies in his home. He receives a call on his cell phone from a mysterious female voice, advising him that the FBI will be arresting him in 30 seconds if he doesn’t flee from the home. Stunned by the news, the Feds come and arrest him. As he is being interrogated, he receives another call from the same female voice. This time, she suggests that he duck. At that moment, a crane crashes through the high-rise and the voice tells Jerry to jump. Predictably, the chase is on.
Unfortunately for viewers, that’s as good as Eagle Eye gets. The film as a whole, turns out to be pretty ridiculous. The rest of the film is one long, hyperactive chase. Much of the audience will probably wonder what the heck’s going on and further, how a voice on a cell phone can control so many things: changing stop lights and giving directions to Jerry through the use of computer automated signs. It all becomes tiring and unbelievable, pretty quickly.
Jerry soon gets a partner in the chase, one Rachel Holloman (played by Michelle Monaghan), as single mother and paralegal who is as confused about what’s going on as Jerry is. While Monaghan does make us feel sorry for Rachel’s plight, the film never really makes it clear why she had to be there in the first place. I guess since Hollywood wants to make LeBeouf the next great leading man, they want to pair him with good looking women whenever possible.
The other major characters in this chase are: Billy Bob Thonton as FBI agent Thomas Morgan and Rosario Dawson as Zoe Perez, an Air Force OSI (Office of Special Investigations) agent, both in hot pursuit of Jerry and Rachel. Will they figure out what’s going on before Jerry and Rachel figure out what’s happening to them?
The whole story is so flimsy and wildly unbelievable most viewers will likely find it hard to care what happens to Jerry and Rachel. While the action scenes do pack a punch, the filmmakers spent so much time developing fabulous stunt sequences and gadgetry they forgot to develop the characters.
DreamWorks presents the film on Blu-ray disc in its original 2.35:1 widescreen aspect ratio using a dual-layer BD50, 1080p, MPEG-4/AVC transfer. The film has a dark, gritty look to it, yet despite that, it looks pretty impressive, with deep black levels, solid colors, and fairly good high definition Facial tones look natural in appearance, and beyond a fine, natural print grain, the screen is generally clean and clear.
The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless track is quite impressive. Beginning with the crane sequence, things continue with a chase on the elevated trains, and a third act chase sequence in a tunnel all great. Surround activity is prominent with directional effects well-placed in the rear speakers, and panning is well-balanced with a subwoofer presence throughout almost all of the film. Dialogue is generally strong. Eagle Eye is an impressive audio experience.
First up among the extras are four deleted scenes, including an alternate ending, lasting about four-and-a-half minutes. After that is a twenty-five-minute, behind-the-scenes documentary, “Asymmetrical Warfare: The Making of Eagle Eye.” It’s all standard stuff. Then there is a six-minute featurette, “Eagle Eye on Location: Washington, D.C.,” about the famous locations the filmmakers used. Next up is the nine-minute featurette “Is My Cell Phone Spying on Me?,” which reiterates the movie’s premise that people are watching us all the time, followed by the nine-minute “Shall We Play a Game?,” wherein director D.J. Caruso converses with his mentor, director John Badham.
Additionally, we get a brief, three-minute featurette, “Road Trip,” detailing some of the location shooting with the cast and crew; a seven-minute gag reel; a photo gallery (SD); and a widescreen theatrical trailer.
The BD includes English, French, and Spanish spoken languages; English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese subtitles; and English captions for the hearing impaired.
