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Eagle Eye
DreamWorks Pictures (Paramount)


7.6

based on 30 reviews
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How did we calculate this?

based on 65 votes
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MPAA RATING: PG-13 for intense sequences of action and violence, and for language

Starring Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Monaghan, Rosario Dawson, Michael Chiklis, Anthony Mackie, and Billy Bob Thornton

In the fast-paced race-against-time-thriller, Eagle Eye, two strangers become the pawns of a mysterious woman they have never met, but who seems to know their every move. Realizing they are being used to further her diabolical plot, they must work together to outwit the woman before she has them killed. (Paramount Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Action \| Mystery \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Dan McDermott Hillary Seitz Travis Wright John Glenn
DIRECTED BY:	D.J. Caruso
RELEASE DATE:	Theatrical: September 26, 2008
RUNNING TIME:	118 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Empire Ian Freer

A fun techno romp, mixing great bang for your buck with insights into the dangers of restricting civil liberties. Now, anyone for Shia killing blondes dressed as his dead mother?

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

The movie is so engrossing as an intellectual puzzle and such a solid thriller in every other department that it's probably actor-proof.

Austin Chronicle Josh Rosenblatt

Good, manic fun plus a heavy dose of political intrigue adding up to two hours of clamorous, mind-numbing nonsense.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Monaghan gives a solid performance, and Billy Bob Thornton has sarcastically funny bits as an FBI agent.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

What Eagle Eye wants to do is show us technology's dark side: all the stuff that's there to make our lives easier - ATMs, PDAs, iPods, GPS, cell phones, PCs, "smart" houses - turned against us in a vast conspiracy.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Eagle Eye has half an idea in its head, but over two hours there's no time to complete or explore it, since the movie isn't just a chase but a combination steeplechase and destruction derby.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

A movie only a copyright lawyer could love. It strip-mines at least three Hitchcock classics - "North by Northwest," "The Wrong Man," and "The Man Who Knew Too Much" - then commits unlawful assault on Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" just for the heck of it.

Film Threat Mark Bell

In the end, the film isn't a complete waste of your time, and it is a neat little walk down a Patriot Act assisted cyber-terrorist "what if..." scenario, but don't expect anything brilliant.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

LaBeouf shambles through the movie with an endearingly lost quality -- his savoir faire is of the hangdog kind, but it pretty much works. And Monaghan, with that upturned nose and those mischievous eyes, always looks like a woman in search of trouble.

New York Post Kyle Smith

With its array of chases and shootouts and a sinister political plot, the movie at least holds your attention and keeps things brisk-ish. But every scene still bears the tags of the place from which it was stolen.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

With less expensive actors, it might just have been called Chase Movie, and played for laughs.

USA Today Claudia Puig

A terrorist thriller that isn't so much suspenseful as overbearing. Though it aspires to be an intriguing political cautionary tale, the movie is mostly about the feverish and jarringly choreographed chase scenes.

Variety Robert Koehler

The picture's first 35 minutes sizzle until a Byzantine plot nudges the story toward near-parody in the final act.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The word preposterous is too moderate to describe Eagle Eye. This film contains not a single plausible moment after the opening sequence, and that's borderline. It's not an assault on intelligence. It's an assault on consciousness.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

At least LaBeouf makes for a likable hero. He's got the same kind of easy, natural charisma as Will Smith -- who, come to think of it, starred in another techno-paranoia thriller, "Enemy of the State," that Eagle Eye strongly resembles.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

The movie doesn't have three brain cells to rub together, but the premise carries it a long way.

Washington Post Neely Tucker

A sometimes entertaining flick that makes a lot of noise but doesn't have much to say.

Slate Josh Levine

Quips alone do not a popcorn-movie star make. In this age of post-steroidal leading men, you don't need to be Arnold Schwarzenegger to carry a movie, but you do need to have some presence.

NPR Bob Mondello

Idiotic, if reasonably kinetic, Eagle Eye -- in which Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan spend the better part of two hours urgently answering phone calls and dodging hurtling machinery -- is every bit as over-edited as it is under-thunk.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

A brain-squandering thriller.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

A shrill, far-fetched thriller.

LA Weekly Robert Wilonsky

From tepid start to laughable middle to thudding finish (and the final two minutes smack of a reshoot), it's nothing but a herky-jerky clusterfuck of noise and nonsense.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

The movie itself is hyperactive and a jumble.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

There is no truth to the rumor that free frontal lobotomies will be performed at the entrance to all theaters showing Eagle Eye.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Noisy, derivative and thoroughly preposterous even by the standards of 21st-century action movies.

Premiere Eric Kohn

It's an empty-headed look at a national problem with modern surveillance society, but if everyone acted as stupidly as the incredulous screenplay would have you believe, then it's safe to say the movie inadvertently reflects, rather than critiques, the insanity of our times.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Questions: Did everyone involved in this botched thriller OD on speed? Does jimmy-legs director D.J. Caruso think if he slowed down the action we'd figure out how stupid the plot is?

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Caruso and Spielberg probably thought they were reviving the paranoid style of 70s political thrillers, but their story is so implausible it barely provokes a tremor.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

It'd probably feel just a little bit timelier and more relevant if it took place in a universe that bore even the faintest resemblance to our own.

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

See, everyone complains about humans in movies but no one does anything about it, so it fell to Eagle Eye to make everything laughably, ridiculously fake.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.6 (out of 10) based on 65 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Kendra P. gave it an8:
I think the director had a very clear and firm picture in his/her mind but had a hard time of conveying the picture.

Gladys gave it a10:
Action packed! Definitely has enough for a mixed male and female audience. Very entertaining, definitely got my monies worth.

Ross K gave it a9:
I thought this movie was fantastic and one of the better ones I have seen in a while. Rare is the movie that has as few plot holes as Eagle Eye, and also rare is the movie that has everything plausible according to the movie's logic, as Eagle Eye also accomplishes. The handheld camera technique gave the whole movie a realistic and engrossing feel, and the acting, in my opinion, was impeccable. Despite the "professional" review that many critics gave this movie, the vast majority of events depicted in Eagle Eye are possible today by the military, if not so readily and irresponsibly used. Well Done.

Scott A. gave it a10:
The movie is great if you want to get your mind out of your life and see something that will keep you at the edge of your seat. For the critic reviews, if you saw a movie that was 100% realistic, we'd hear you whining that it was "too" realistic.

Alisa B. gave it a10:
If I plop down $8-10 for a movie I want it to entertain me. Eagle Eye did just that. I don't care if it borrows from several classic films - as long as it entertains. This movie did that. Some films are thought provoking, some are just for fun - and that's okay. A film doesn't have to be all things to all people.

Joe G. gave it a5:
I recently went to the theaters and viewed a film titled Eagle Eye, directed by D J Caruso starring actors Shia Lebeouf and Billy Bob Thorton. Eagle Eye is a very action packed movie from beginning to end, there are action scenes. The whole plot is a bit strange. A man and a woman were destined to help the country by stopping a terrorist attack. They did succeed in stopping this attempt in a series of action packed scenes. I have to admit the film was very exciting. The main character is given a series of steps to follow and it seems like every time he listens to the advice he turns out okay. He continues to listen. The film felt like a psychological movie much like The Matrix. When I realized all the directions being given to laBeouf come from a computer program controlling the nation, I became more critical of the film. Some of the fictional aspects don’t have as much impact in an action film. This is a very fast paced movie moving from action scene to action scene. It also had many political aspects, and as we get closer to the election some people like to see films containing this. It shows how government can be corrupt, or a whole different set up than people think it is. We rely on technology much in today’s society and this shows what might happen if we rely on it a little too much. Overall this chase style movie has some intriguing action scenes but the plot is just too simple. By the time the movie is over, or even before it is complete, you are happy it is done. This film also left me wondering “where have I seen that before?” It is too much like many other action films such as Enemy of the State starring Will Smith. Although I pretended to like the film at the time to agree with my company, it was too noisy and fast and frankly had too much going on for no apparent reason. 5 out of 10 stars!

Alex R. gave it a10:
One thing I really hate about some of the "reviewers" scores is they base it upon realism, whether high-grossing actors are in the movie or not, and originality. Things like that shouldn't be taken too seriously. One example: The Dark Night, one of the highest rated movies this year. But DC mainly just made the comic into a movie (so it's not entirely original), and really is realism perfect in THAT movie? The point is I'm trying to make is that some reviewers can't take a breather and just plain enjoy the movie. Which comes to my review of the movie in one word to describe it all: awesome. The action is excellent, the story will make you think throughout, the actors do their roles very well, and overall it's a great thriller. I honestly think this is one action movie that is definitely worth checking out.

Eagle Eye DreamWorks Pictures (Paramount)

Eagle Eye
DreamWorks Pictures (Paramount)