Review: Eagle Eye is short of a few optic fibres
Eagle Eye and the stars watch as a Middle Eastern chap gets fried with it
I was lucky enough to catch the Adelaide preview of Eagle Eye tonight.
I digested a bag full of licorice, I’m now feeling nausea but cannot decide whether it’s the movie or too much licorice that is to blame.
I won’t spoil the plot for you (although I presume if you have half an interest in new movies you would have read about it online anyway), but suffice to say that if you are over 30 years of age, the following clue will reveal all:
“Open the pod bay doors, Hal”
Mix that clue with Enemy of the State and you have a good idea why this movie failed to move the earth around me.
Look, the acting talent is … well… talented. I loved Billy Bob Thornton until the lead-in to the climax, the girls in the audience went gooey over Shia LaBeouf, the guys were very comfortable watching Michelle Monaghan (especially when she was ‘dressed up’ in the final few scenes), and the cgi work was impressive.
I just can’t help thinking that most of the money went in the wrong direction. Many was the time when Billy Bob Thornton was the only cast member visible, chasing an out-of-shot Shia and Michelle. A few less dollars spent on exploding cars and a few more on more believable characters would have helped.
Much of the plot line unfolds in text-book fashion. Indeed, I was thinking of all the possible directions each new plot mark could have taken us, and I didn’t need to expend a lot of energy.
And the ending? My 15 year old stepdaughter loved it, because it was typical Hollywood: happy ever after. Never mind the fact that Michelle is still living in the same dishevelled abode, that she wasn’t present at the medal ceremony, that she didn’t seem to have spent any of the money the Government no doubt must have given her to shut her up and buy her silence… But we had the dreamy-eyed stare of fate-crossed lovers, so that’s alright, then.
Jim Shembri over at The Age calls it “the thinking dude’s action thriller” and awards it three and a half stars. My stepdaughter gave it five stars and said she wanted to buy it when it comes out on dvd.
Me? I give it two and a half; it isn’t taxing, it doesn’t make you think (it gives you no opportunity to), and the cast are all eye-candy of one sort or another.
And with that review over, I’m off to ‘experience’ the movie and see what ‘extras’ I can score that might make me change my mind. I’m not hanging by a rope waiting…
Enter a contest and appear in ‘Watchmen’
Zack Snyder is offering you the opportunity to create “Veidt Enterprises” TV commercials that could end up in the feature film WATCHMEN, scheduled to be released in cinemas in early 2009.
To get started, download the standard definition and/or high definition assets from the competition site, and then shoot your own original TV commercial that advertises one of the products! Remember, the movie is set in 1985, so TV commercials should be in 4:3 aspect ratio (so it looks like standard TV, not widescreen) and they should be either 15, 30 or 60 seconds in length. The products are all made by “Veidt Enterprises,” and you can download the product logos for your use as well.
The contest has only just been opened up to we Aussies and unfortunately ends on at 5pm GMT on July 28th. Better get your skates on!
The 3 finalists from each country involved in the almost-global contest will win signed stills from Zack Snyder and have a chance to be included in the WATCHMEN feature film itself. The 3 finalists and top 20 runners-up will also receive a WATCHMEN countdown clock and a keyring.
‘Watchmen‘ is a complex, multi-layered mystery adventure, the film is set in an alternate 1985 America in which costumed superheroes are part of the fabric of everyday society, and the “Doomsday Clock” – which charts the USA’s tension with the Soviet Union – is permanently set at five minutes to midnight.
When one of his former colleagues is murdered, the washed-up* but no less determined masked vigilante Rorschach sets out to uncover a plot to kill and discredit all past and present superheroes.
As he reconnects with his former crime-fighting legion –– a ragtag group of retired superheroes, only one of whom has true powers –– Rorschach glimpses a wide-ranging and disturbing conspiracy with links to their shared past and catastrophic consequences for the future. Their mission is to watch over humanity…but who is watching the Watchmen?
* being a washed up superhero seems to be a current Hollywood flavour – see Hancock)
For more information visit the competition site.
————————-
————————-
Aussie premiere of The Bank Job with Jason Statham
Jason Statham, the current leading man for boy’s action movies (and a bit of a heart-throb I’m lead to believe by some female colleagues), is in Sydney for the Australian Premiere of the movie “The Bank Job” tonight at:
Greater Union Cinemas Bondi Junction, Westfield Bondi Junction.
Anyone who wishes to play ‘Spot the Celebrity’ should arrive around 5.30pm. ‘The Bank Job’ was a British blockbuster when it was released earlier this year. Interesting story in itself regarding how the a D-Notice was issued to ask the British press from reporting on the scandal the movie is based on.
In September 1971, thieves tunnelled into the vault of a bank in London’s Baker Street and looted safe deposit boxes of cash and jewelry worth over three million pounds. None of it was recovered. Nobody was ever arrested. The robbery made headlines for a few days and then disappeared – the result of a ‘D’ Notice, gagging the press.
This film reveals what was hidden for the first time.
The story involves murder, corruption and a sex scandal with links to the Royal Family — a story in which the thieves were the most innocent people involved.
—————–
—————–
Angelina Jolie took on action role as therapy
Angelina Jolie has apparently admitted that she signed up for her new action movie Wanted to recover from her mom’s death; Marcheline Bertrand died of cancer in February of last year. The Oscar winner says she took up the role because she was sliding into depression and needed something to keep her physically busy, reports Contactmusic. You mean that motherhood, being married to Brad Pitt and looking as gorgeous as she does is not enough? Try working out more, dear — apparently the endorphins are fabulous for you.
“My mother had just passed away and I wanted to do something physical to get it out of my head for a while,” she said. “I felt I was going into a very dark place and I wasn’t capable of getting up in the morning, so I signed up for something that would force me to be active.”
Wanted plot (courtesy of Eric D. Snider:
Wanted is about a Chicago office drone named Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) whose life is so insubstantial that he gets zero hits when he Googles himself. But like Neo before him (only played by an actual actor, rather than a plank of driftwood), Wesley is rescued from his drudgery by a secret organization that wants to tell him who he really is and what his destiny can be.
It goes on… there’s Morgan Freeman, Angie baby and a truckload of cgi effects, blood, gore and violence. Not one for Jessica’s 8th birthday party, methinks.
————-
————-
Hancock — dodgy reviews, bumper box office!
Will Smith cracked another winner on the weekend with Hancock, despite some dodgy reviews. Says David Germain:
Critics generally thought the turn the movie takes halfway through was a cheat, spoiling what had been a promising idea that was a fresh twist on the superhero genre in its own right.
The people who turned “Hancock” into an instant blockbuster beg to differ — to the sum of $185 million worldwide at the box office in just a few days.
Who cares about dodgy reviews, asks Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers, who went on to say that it didn’t matter that the movie didn’t have “great reviews,” because Will Smith was “the most bankable star in the world.”
If you haven’t already seen the movie I won’t spoil it for you, but watch out for the always-stunning Charlize Theron who turns in a class performance.
—————-
—————-
Journey to the Centre of the Earth could be a 3D winner
Brendan Fraser stars in the 2008 update of the Jules Verne classic, Journey to the Centre of the Earth (official site).
Naturally, being Hollywood and not the more dour parts of Europe, there is a love interest — Hannah Ásgeirsson, “a feisty Icelandic tour guide (newcomer Anita Briem)”, says Edward Douglas in an interview with first-time director Eric Brevis.
|
|
According to her RADA entry, she is 5ft 4″ tall, blonde with green eyes, Icelandic, and has the following special skills: Dance – African, Flamenco, Restoration, Elizabethan and Lindy Hop; skiing; swimming; snowmobiling; fluent in Icelandic with working Danish and German; Flute – soprano, alto and piccolo; good sight reading; music theory; horse riding; driving licence; John Barton Prize at RADA Henry Marshall Prize Fights 2002; singing (soprano). Her special interests include travelling, encountering different cultures, reading, going to the theatre, and spending time with family. That may have to be put on hold for a while as I predict a bright future for her for the next few years, until her star fades and some other blonde beauty with a Nordic accent comes along… But at least she actually has a real acting pedigree to fall back on. |
The reasons the film is such a ‘big talking point’ at the moment are because:
- It’s one of the new 3D movies, joining the ranks of Chicken Little, Monster House, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Meet the Robinsons, Beowulf, Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: The Best of Both Worlds Concert and U2 3D (U2′s concert film based on the Vertigo Tour) [note: Josh Radde has a fabulous 'top 10' list of films that should have been made in 3D and would have been so cool!]
- Brendan is so bankable at the moment (but not as much as Will Smith — see later story about Hancock)
Says Brendan in a phone interview with Chris Hewitt says,
On “Journey,” he describes the moment when he realized that, because the film was being shot digitally (with no film), the actors had more leeway to experiment.
“It’s like a light switch that you can keep on a little longer during a take, because there’s no film that is going to run out. So there are no mistakes. So I got to take advantage of the over-active imagination that used to get me sent to the principal’s office,” says Fraser. “There’s more freedom and more room to collaborate.”
Chris Georg over at efluxmedia has a brief but useful commentary on the movie and the technology, but nothing beats the interview with Edward Douglas’ interview with Eric Brevis for the true, inside ‘nuts and bolts’.
I’m a lover of the original novel, I used to play Rick Wakeman’s album of the same name over and over again in the late 1970s (youtube videos here and here), and I’m looking forward to see what technology and a pretty blonde girl can do with ‘Hans Bjelke’ (the original guide, a Danish speaking eiderdown Icelander hunter) and Icelandic alchemist Arne Saknussemm’s infamous voyage.
UPDATE: Josh Radde has a fabulous ‘top 10′ list of films that should have been made in 3D and would have been so cool! Included in his list are: Star Wars, Raging Bull, ET, North by Northwest… no more spoilers from me, but some brilliant choices from Josh! And the comments bring up some brilliant contenders as well.
—————-
—————-
G’day!
This is the first post on a new blog devoted to movie gossip and reviews.
If you like what you see and read, please tell your friends — if you don’t tell us!
