Eagle Eye

Rating:

* *

Verdict:

Highly derivative big brother thriller suffers from speed wobbles

Say this for high-surveillance super-computer thriller

Eagle Eye

, it's sure got a lot of processing power. It whizzes us so quickly through the action, which has a pair of Chicago strangers (LaBeouf and Monaghan) being cellphone-blackmailed to do possibly bad things down in D.C., it's as if it doesn't want us to stop and realise how preposterous it all is. Nice try.

And while it's got some grunt in the crash-bang department, it is woefully low on memory.

This is basically

Enemy of the State

meets

The Matrix

, meets

Die Hard

parts two to four, meets every film with artificial intelligence represented by a glowing eye of red light. Its ending is spookily similar to the

Get Smart

movie. Which is just dumb.

Yes, it may be trying to say something about the US Patriot Act, Homeland Security, the invasiveness of technology, the war on terror and the erosion of freedoms in the George W era. But any message gets drowned out by the rest of the film loudly shouting: look out for the collapsing powerlines/swinging crane boom/ airport luggage conveyor/heavily armed drone airplane behind you ...

That's while it's making its actors point guns, run fast and shout a lot at each other. Sometimes - when it gets really exciting - they do all three.

That is unless, of course, they are supporting characters like Rosario Dawson's USAF agent who seems to have wandered in by mistake from the Pentagon office next door. Having flashed her badge, she soon looks like she doesn't know quite what she's doing here. You'll soon feel the same.

Russell Baillie

Cast:

Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Monaghan

Director:

DJ Caruso

Rating:

M

Running time:

110 mins

Screening:

SkyCity, Hoyts, Berkeley cinemas