DVD review (region 1)
Directed by D.J. Caruso
Starring Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Monaghan, Billy Bob Thornton, Rosario Dawson, Michael Chiklis
Release date Out now

Store assistant Jerry Shaw (LaBeouf) and single mother Rachel Holloman (Monaghan) both receive threatening phonecalls. They’re given instructions by an unseen force that’s capable of controlling every aspect of life, while Federal Agent Morgan (Thornton) gives chase…

Following the wholesale rip-off of Rear Window that was Disturbia, DJ Caruso presents us with another slick, ear-splitting Hitchockian thriller with a sci-fi twist.

We say ‘Hitchcockian’, but Caruso still has much to learn from the Master of Suspense. Hitch’s classics like North By Northwest and Vertigo were always as much about psychologically complex characters as they were convoluted stories. Their heroes tended to be likeable, everyday people caught up in extraordinary circumstances, and benefited from the easygoing charm of actors like James Stewart or Cary Grant. In contrast, there’s something cold and calculated about Eagle Eye’s humourless heroes – surprising as Labeouf’s charms gave Transformers a warm-hearted human element and Monaghan displayed excellent comic timing in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

The supporting roles are even more thankless. Rosario Dawson is wasted as a personality-free agent trying to discover the truth, as is The Shield’s Michael Chiklis as the Secretary of Defense. Billy Bob Thornton at least shouts and stomps about with enthusiasm in a role that recalls Tommy Lee Jones’s US Marshal in The Fugitive, but is hampered by a lack of genuinely memorable dialogue.

Caruso tries to cover over the cracks with lots of running about and some frantically-edited action sequences, but even these become repetitive after a while. Obviously Eagle Eye is no North by Northwest, but this isn’t even up to the standard of the similar Enemy of the State.

The 2-disc DVD, however, has a generous amount of extras, including features on shooting in Washington DC, a gag reel and a paranoid featurette entitled ‘Is My Cell Phone Spying on Me?’ James Skipp

VERDICT: 4/10
A vacant actioner with noise where its heart should be, this manages the dual accomplishment of being overly convoluted and incredibly dumb at the same time.