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Activating the 2 Disc Eagle Eye on DVD
by Reg Seeton
Synopsis:
"The race-against-time thriller "Eagle Eye" reunites actor Shia LaBeouf, director D.J. Caruso and executive producer Steven Spielberg for the first time since their sleeper hit 'Disturbia.'
 In 'Eagle Eye,' Jerry Shaw (LaBeouf) and Rachel Holloman (Michelle Monaghan) are two strangers thrown together by a mysterious phone call from a woman they have never met. Threatening their lives and their family, she pushes Jerry and Rachel into a series of increasingly dangerous situations using the technology of everyday life to track and control their every move. As the situation escalates, these two ordinary people become the country's most wanted fugitives, who must now work together to discover what is really happening. Fighting for their lives, they become pawns of a faceless enemy who seems to have limitless power to manipulate everything they do.
When a movie like the summer popcorn thrill ride Eagle Eye hits theaters, with names attached like Steven Spielberg, D.J. Caruso, Shia La Beouf, Michelle Monaghan, Rosario Dawson, Michael Chiklis, Billy Bob Thornton, and Transformers and Fringe writers/producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, it's not hard to get a mental image of what type of movie you could expect to see. Forrest Gump? Hardly. Titanic? Absolutely not! The Dark Knight or Iron Man? Maybe. Enemy of the State? Closer to the ballpark. The Bourne movies? Even Warmer."
Having waited for Eagle Eye to arrive on DVD for its December 27 DreamWorks/Paramount release instead of investing in the theater experience, it's interesting to look back at some of the critical reaction to a film that, despite how bad it was made out to be, made over $174 million worldwide. Is Eagle Eye a paint-by-numbers thriller with a tired premise? Sure. Is the movie largely unbelievable and over-the-top ridiculous? You bet. Is it the best techno-thriller to hit theaters? I guess that would depend on how old you are. Me, I much preferred Enemy of the State with Will Smith and Gene Hackman. But if your favorite actor is Shia LaBeouf no matter what movie he's in, we both know my opinion's not going to matter anyway.
So when I saw this headline a few months ago - "Critics Consensus: Eagle Eye Doesn't Soar", I thought to myself, "Who gives a... " It's not like you couldn't see that collective sigh coming a mile away. It's true that Eagle Eye will remind you of other; arguably better films in the techno-thriller wheelhouse. However, given the god awful atrocities people have raised to the level of cult status over the years, it's not like you can't have some fun with Eagle Eye.
 What feels like a movie that's part of a Shia LaBeouf three-pack movie deal with Spielberg after the young actor signed on to Transformers and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Eagle Eye taps into the fear of where society could be headed with given the many technological advances that we can't seem to manage. The film rides high on a conspiratorial wave of government encroachment, surveillance, and issues related to privacy while the public becomes more suspicious and paranoid given the expanding digital age and advances in such things as GPS technology and technologically enhanced marketing. For the most part, Eagle Eye is ripped from today's post-911 headlines for an all-out chase that lacks originality but delivers in action, intensity, and adrenaline charged entertainment value, with dazzling visuals, popcorn appeal, and a breakneck pace.
Interestingly enough, for the older moviegoers who remember the underrated 1991 movie Run, starring Patrick Dempsey and Kelly Preston, Eagle Eye is kind of like that only 17 years in the future and injected with Spielberg type money and more conspiratorial ridiculousness. And to be honest, some things in Eagle Eye - look for the airport - will make the old Run look like a former Oscar winner. But with solid performances from La Beouf and Michelle Monaghan, plus federal agents Rosario Dawson, Billy Bob Thornton and Michael Chiklis as the Secretary of Defense, Eagle Eye has enough going for it to be an enjoyable ride as long as you know what you're going into. And if you haven't seen the movie yet, look at the DVD cover first - girl chases guy with gun with the Capitol Building in the background - so you don't think you're "soaring" into Titanic 2. If you can have fun with the Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci produced and penned films Mission Impossible III and Transformers, plus their TV work on Alias and Fringe, it's REALLY hard to take anyone seriously who says they can't buy into Eagle Eye.
 As a DVD, Eagle Eye was released as both a single disc edition, with minimal extras included, and a bolstered 2-Disc Special Edition. While the single disc offers your standard "making of" in a featurette called "Road Trip" and a series of brief deleted scenes, the 2-Disc carries over the others but delves deeper into the film's conspiratorial and technological backdrop with such features as "Eagle Eye on Location: Washington, DC", "Is My Cell Phone Spying on Me", and a much more comprehensive and detailed behind-the-scenes feature called "Asymmetrical Warfare: The Making of Eagle Eye", which explores the transformation of how wars are being fought in today's modern age as related to the film. In addition to the trailer, a quality photo gallery, an entertaining gag reel, and an interesting and fun segment called "Shall We Play a Game", the 2-Disc set also boasts an alternate ending, which doesn't come close to the final cut’s intensity in terms of satisfaction. Still, it provides a cool alt-take for fans to sink their teeth into.
As you can probably tell by now, Eagle Eye provides a decent dose of entertainment value that's neither great or terrible. It's formulaic yet fun. As a DVD, obviously the 2-Disc gives you more bang for your buck with a good mix of expanded extras. But if it's the film you're after, the single disc will do just fine. A bonus to the 2-Disc Special Edition is that in some ways the behind-the-scenes explorations of the themes are even better than the scripted fiction.
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