Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Eagle Eye (2008)

5/10/2016

Eagle Eye (2008) - Caruso's wobbly sci-fi ride

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The slick, a bit dull poster for D. J. Caruso's Eagle Eye

The US Defense Department has launched an enormous computer database, but when it makes a recommendation in relation to a terrorist liquidation in the Middle East, which gets ignored, it 'activates' two citizens in an autonomous effort to coup the government with a super-bomb!

Surveillance grievances and state paranoia is dusted off and fed into a plot of running, worried glances and action spectacles that are mostly fast forgotten here.
Eagle Eye wants to be adrenaline-pumped suspense throughout. Shia LaBeouf (Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010)) speed-talking declarations, brillo hair and moist baby-face is utilized but often annoying and/or laughable. Other stars do their best, but this is a paycheck job for them all. Billy Bob Thornton (U Turn (1997)) contributes some dry humor and is watchable as usual, - and the film is generally wittily written by John Glenn (The Lazarus Project (2008)), Travis Wright (The Lazarus Project, producer), Hillary Seitz (Insomnia (2002)) and Dan McDermott (Human Target (2011), TV-series). D. J. Caruso (I Am Number Four (2011)) directed it.
Eagle Eye is a package deal that isn't all that.

Related posts:

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) or, Humanity and Space
D. J. Caruso: Disturbia (2007) or, Good Nightia

Shia LaBeouf does some serious running in D. J. Caruso's Eagle Eye

In lieu of a trailer for, not currently on Youtube, here's an interview with Shia LaBeouf for the movie

Cost: 80 mil. $
Box office: 178.9 mil. $
= Flop
[Eagle Eye was released September 26 and runs 118 minutes. The screenplay was written on behest of executive producer Steven Spielberg, who had an idea based on the Isaac Asimov short story All the Troubles of the World. Spielberg hired Caruso to helm the film, because he himself was busy with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, also with LaBeouf. The conveyor belt scene in the film was shot for real, without any use of CGI, and both Michelle Monaghan (Machine Gun Preacher (2011)) and Caruso were injured during its filming. The score for the film was recorded with the 88-piece Hollywood Studio Symphony. Eagle Eye was released to poor reviews, - Roger Ebert gave it a measly 2 stars, - but also a #1 opening weekend of 29.1 mil. $ in North America, where it grossed 101.4 mil. $ (56.7 % of the total gross). Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 13.2 mil. $ (7.4 %) and South Korea with 10.6 mil. $ (5.9 %). The film made in excess of 38 mil. $ on DVD sales alone, which, if added to the gross, makes it a success. Eagle Eye is rotten at 26 % with a 4.6 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Eagle Eye?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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5/10/2016

Eagle Eye (2008) - Caruso's wobbly sci-fi ride

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