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1. fantastic movie must see

   by Anonymous 6 Oct 2008 2:52 p.m.

2. Bill Wine - Celebrity News Service Movie Critic 118 minutes In theaters September 26, 2008 Rating: PG-13, Thriller Our simultaneous reliance on and fear of modern technology gets a high-energy workout in the race-and-chase action techno-thriller, Eagle Eye. Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan play Jerry Shaw and Rachel Holloman, two strangers who are thrown together after a series of strange, threatening cell phone calls from a woman they do not know. Jerry has just returned from the funeral of his twin brother to discover hundreds of thousands of dollars that are not his deposited in his bank account and his apartment suddenly full of obvious terrorist supplies. What the heck's going on here? The disembodied voice threatens single mom Rachel's eight-year-old son, away for the weekend as the member of the school band, if she and copy-shop clerk Jerry do not follow orders. And the orders seem to be coming from a group that, thanks to the ubiquitous technology of modern everyday life, can track their every move. The things they ask the two of them do seem to have something to do with Jerry's late brother. But it puts them in the position of being pursued by authorities as a threat to society. They are obviously being framed for crimes they have no intention of committing. But who is and how can they stop them? Three of the authorities on their trail are FBI agent Billy Bob Thornton, Air Force officer Rosario Dawson, and Secretary of Defense Michael Chiklis. At first, they suspect that Jerry and Rachel are terrorists. But they soon come to realize that someone else is pulling the strings. LaBeouf reteams with D. J. Caruso (Two for the Money, The Salton Sea, Taking Lives), who also directed him in last year's Disturbia and who occasionally resorts to overkill by way of narrative ludicrousness. However, this outing is superior to their previous collaboration because it does not go over the top in the late going and does offer a conclusion that justifies the buildup. The script, which offers a slyly political subtext, comes from a quartet of screenwriters and was inspired by a story first suggested over a decade ago by Steven Spielberg, who served as one of the film's executive producers. Had he also directed, masterful auteur Spielberg might have avoided the more prepsterous plot points and turned this passable entertainment into something more. But at least director Caruso keeps things moving in express-train mode, and gets things off to an intriguing start with an adrenaline-rush grabber of an opening reel. And although the two otherwise ordinary lead characters do at one point become adept action stars -- suddenly, prematurely, and unconvincingly -- LaBeouf and Monaghan otherwise shine, he a terrifically effective everyman, she a touchingly vulnerable parent. The ultimate puzzle that the film solves turns out to be an interesting if farfetched one. Without giving anything away, let's just say that elements of 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Manchurian Candidate flash through your mind as the film proceeds through its Hitchcockian paces. According to the paranoid premise of this convoluted but exciting surveillance-gone-mad thriller, while you're watching Eagle Eye, it just might be watching you. Article © AHN - All Rights Reserved

   by N Daniels 3 Oct 2008 4:07 p.m.