Eagle Eye

Remember that movie where the bad guys made Will Smith chase through the streets with his shirt flapping open?………. Um, OK, maybe not specific enough? Enemy of the State, it was called, and in it a shady government agency used its superior surveillance technology to snoop and meddle and basically frack up someone’s life. Eagle Eye has a similar plot arch. But then again, it seems to have borrowed quite shamelessly from just about every other skop-skiep-en-donder thriller ever made; in particular it has echoes of the recent Angelina Wanted movie, perhaps because of it’s Chicago locations and the movie’s frenetic look-and-feel. Think Will Smith meets Jason Bourne meets Daniel Craig meets Mission Impossible (same plane-in-tunnel, same goddam actress) – but starring this generation’s Tom Hanks; Shia LaBoeuf.

Shia plays twin Jerry Shaw, whose brother was (or wasn’t) doing something clever but shady in the Military. On the day of his brother’s sudden death, Jerry is inexplicably drawn into a convoluted and wholly impractical web of terror which results in car chases, humungous explosions and the kind of crowd scenes that always sidetrack me into budget-consideration cul-de-sacs. There’s not much characterisation going on, but that doesn’t seem to matter, since director DJ Caruso (who, I belatedly realise, is not the same person as David – he who speaks portentiously whilst remaining unable to give eye-contact – Caruso) keeps the whole thing charging along at a cracking pace.

In the end though, it’s lovely Rosario Dawson who smacks down the errant villain with a crow-bar. Enough said, really.