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"Eagle Eye" is everything thats wrong with Hollywood

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"Eagle Eye" is everything thats wrong with Hollywood

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Old 09-29-08 | 09:35 AM
  #26  
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Originally Posted by mdc3000
I love movies that are challenging and make you think - but sometimes after a long day, you just want to relax and be entertained - Eagle Eye is a great way to do that.
Agree with this completely. We went to see Eagle Eye Saturday, and enjoyed it quite a bit. Very entertaining ride.

I'll definitely consider buying it on DVD.
Old 09-29-08 | 09:36 AM
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My fiancee and her friends dragged me to this Saturday night. I warned them about the reviews saying it was a piece of crap, but it seems like I'm the only one I know who pays any mind to that.

They seemed to enjoy it, but I got what I was expecting. A mind-numbingly stupid movie that made little sense and had paper thin characters.

It's not a suspension of disbelief issue. I can accept that HAL 9000(or SAL 9000 since it has a chick's voice) wants to pull a Tom Clancy "Debt of Honor" on the Capitol. But if it's that freaking powerful, why does it need Mutt Williams and Harmony Faith Lane to do its bidding?

The key to these kinds of movies is that they make the unbelievable premise believable within the universe these characters inhabit. Ivan Reitman said it best when describing Ghostbusters. If you accept the absurd idea that ghosts exist and you can catch them, the rest of the movie makes perfect sense. And it did. Nothing makes any sense in Eagle Eye. It's just designed to get the characters from one setpiece(which weren't very impressive) to the next.
Old 09-29-08 | 11:37 AM
  #28  
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Originally Posted by Ronnie Dobbs
this is the problem with moviegoers today. Medocrity is accepted and rewarded. Why go see a movie that may leave you wondering or challenging you mind a little when you can see the same recycled predictable garbage you've seen twenty times before? I'm glad you liked i though because artistic integrity is no longer a value in filmmaking its all about what the box office numbers are. Dreamworks/Paramount appreciates your money.
So you basically got sucked in by the slick marketing and now are pissed because you spent your $$ on this? Honestly you should have known better.

Hey same thing happened to me and the new Indy movie this summer, it happens.

Last edited by d2cheer; 09-29-08 at 11:39 AM.
Old 09-29-08 | 12:58 PM
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Originally Posted by Doughboy
It's not a suspension of disbelief issue. I can accept that HAL 9000(or SAL 9000 since it has a chick's voice) wants to pull a Tom Clancy "Debt of Honor" on the Capitol. But if it's that freaking powerful, why does it need Mutt Williams and Harmony Faith Lane to do its bidding?
(I'll continue using your character names here to keep this simple and spoilerize it just in case)
Spoiler:

Well, you could debate that Harmony could have been someone else - they easily could have had another way to get that final conflict set up, but I don't see why it COULDN'T be her. With her son schedule to be in the right place at the right time for a sneak attack, it fits enough. Using the band to get by security makes sense and since she'll do anything to save her son, something the computer learned from her PERSONALITY PROFILE, why not exploit that. To keep things on the DL, the computer used multiple people for specific parts of the plan, like a real terror cell would... and the reason the computer didn't just re-route a missile or something is because the act was FOR THE PEOPLE BY THE PEOPLE. Kind of weak, yes, but the computer took that passage very literally, so it had to be a person (exploding mommy and kid) who made this change. (and with the lock in place it couldn't do that anyhow...)

In regards to why it needs Mutt Williams, well, that part is one of the only semi-original things in the movie and shows SAL's main weakness. Of course they'd build some sort of failsafe into the computer and it seems to be a fairly decent one, which is why Julianne Moore computer goes to such great lengths to get Mutt - only his biometrics can unlock the computers, freeing it from a restricted set of rules. A lot of the hoops they jump through are to keep the authorities tied up and distracted from the real threat... The computer can't likely just phone up Shia and ask him to please come and unlock it's restrictions....

None of this will persuade you to like the movie, but I thought within the world they created, this all worked and fit in pretty well.

Last edited by mdc3000; 09-29-08 at 01:01 PM.
Old 09-29-08 | 01:07 PM
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Eagle Eye aka Terminator 4:Cyberdyne Light.

The action was cool and the person I saw it with liked it but I saying, "Aaaawe come on maaan!" throughout most of the film, especially when the bad guy reveal occurred.

Last edited by Giantrobo; 09-29-08 at 01:11 PM.
Old 09-29-08 | 02:47 PM
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Hopefully nothing will come of this. From slashfilm:
This weekend I received an e-mail from /Film reader Tanner C. informing me that one of the screenwriters of Eagle Eye was working on a screenplay for Blade Runner 2.
Old 09-30-08 | 03:41 PM
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Had lots of action and was entertaining throughout. I really recommend it to anyone who likes action, DJ Caruso does a good job directing and I think its one of his better films (Disturbia is a hard one to beat).

Michelle Monaghan looked really good too.
Old 09-30-08 | 06:00 PM
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I'm still wondering what the purpose was of getting all that stuff at his apt. Also, why did the computer need the trombone playing kid? Couldn't it just crash a plane or something into the president if it really wanted to kill him? It was capable of doing that to one of the main characters and didn't need Shia's help.
Old 09-30-08 | 06:08 PM
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Originally Posted by harrydoyle
Had lots of action and was entertaining throughout. I really recommend it to anyone who likes action, DJ Caruso does a good job directing and I think its one of his better films (Disturbia is a hard one to beat).

Michelle Monaghan looked really good too.
hard one to beat? two words: REAR WINDOW.
Old 09-30-08 | 06:26 PM
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will smith and superhero movies are whats wrong with hollywood. not the two together just in general.
Old 10-01-08 | 06:11 AM
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Despite knowing this was getting low ratings, I went and saw it anyway because I liked the trailer and wanted to see a popcorn action movie... pretty much got what I expected. I was entertained, but really, it completely falls apart if you try to think about it AT ALL! I agree with most of what Doughboy said... even within the context of the movie, it doesn't really make any sense. Why go through that convoluted mess if you can just pull a "Debt of Honor" and fly a plane into the capitol.

It seems like there are a lot of opportunities for a much better movie about the dangers of some entity getting control of our information...
Old 10-01-08 | 09:37 AM
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Originally Posted by Doughboy
My fiancee and her friends dragged me to this Saturday night. I warned them about the reviews saying it was a piece of crap, but it seems like I'm the only one I know who pays any mind to that.

They seemed to enjoy it, but I got what I was expecting. A mind-numbingly stupid movie that made little sense and had paper thin characters.

It's not a suspension of disbelief issue. I can accept that HAL 9000(or SAL 9000 since it has a chick's voice) wants to pull a Tom Clancy "Debt of Honor" on the Capitol. But if it's that freaking powerful, why does it need Mutt Williams and Harmony Faith Lane to do its bidding?

The key to these kinds of movies is that they make the unbelievable premise believable within the universe these characters inhabit. Ivan Reitman said it best when describing Ghostbusters. If you accept the absurd idea that ghosts exist and you can catch them, the rest of the movie makes perfect sense. And it did. Nothing makes any sense in Eagle Eye. It's just designed to get the characters from one setpiece(which weren't very impressive) to the next.
Not only that but it gets upset at all the Americans being killed so it comes up with a plan that will result in the killing of a whole bunch of innocent people, and in a sick way, kid killing himself and blowing his mothers head off.
Old 10-01-08 | 11:11 AM
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Originally Posted by arminius
Not only that but it gets upset at all the Americans being killed so it comes up with a plan that will result in the killing of a whole bunch of innocent people, and in a sick way, kid killing himself and blowing his mothers head off.
Well that makes sense.

Look I'm not against action thrillers if they make sense. Its just ones that have such a crazy outlandih plots it almost seems like they're insulting my intelligence. Then I get angry.
Old 10-01-08 | 06:48 PM
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Originally Posted by atari2600
are you kidding me? its a freaking popcorn action flick... looks like someone loves the thesaurus function on word.
Out of an almost morbid curiousity (because I truly do not care what your limited intellect will say, and ask this in an almost retorical fashion), why is it that whenever someone on here uses a word that is outside the realm of "normal" human conversation, they are berated for their use of a thesaurus?

Perhaps one should realize that people do not necessarily limit themselves in their advancement of knowledge, and not only actually know these words, but also the proper context in which to use them?

There are people out there smarter than yourself. And, judging from your wonderful use of prose and punctuation, there are a lot of them. You may want to get used to that.
Old 10-01-08 | 10:23 PM
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Originally Posted by riotinmyskull
hard one to beat? two words: REAR WINDOW.
You get thumbs up from me.
Old 10-02-08 | 12:57 AM
  #41  
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Originally Posted by invisiblegt
Out of an almost morbid curiousity (because I truly do not care what your limited intellect will say, and ask this in an almost retorical fashion), why is it that whenever someone on here uses a word that is outside the realm of "normal" human conversation, they are berated for their use of a thesaurus?

Perhaps one should realize that people do not necessarily limit themselves in their advancement of knowledge, and not only actually know these words, but also the proper context in which to use them?

There are people out there smarter than yourself. And, judging from your wonderful use of prose and punctuation, there are a lot of them. You may want to get used to that.
Well said.

But all those people that are smart and don't need a thesaurus surely didn't waste their time seeing Eagle Eye?
Old 10-02-08 | 01:05 AM
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I just saw this tonight with my free ticket I got from the WITNESS Special Edition DVD. It was an entertaining flick in the same realm of any Tony Scott film. Shai LeBoef is very good and likable - I hope he gets smarter action movies than this and Transformers.

But yes, I agree with the original thread...PLEASE HOLLYWOOD, no more films about A.I./robots going nuts and running the world, no more films about cloning, and no more films about aliens. Science fiction is not narrowed down to these three themes.
Old 10-02-08 | 02:44 AM
  #43  
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Hey guys, check out my new movie, Alien Robot Clones Run Amuck!

Oh, wait...
Old 10-02-08 | 08:36 AM
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Originally Posted by riotinmyskull
hard one to beat? two words: REAR WINDOW.
Similarly, Body Double.
Old 10-02-08 | 09:32 AM
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Originally Posted by toddly6666

But yes, I agree with the original thread...PLEASE HOLLYWOOD, no more films about A.I./robots going nuts and running the world, no more films about cloning, and no more films about aliens. Science fiction is not narrowed down to these three themes.
I hear you but I don't think it's the subject matter as much as it's the poor handling of the issues. Cloning, technology gone wild, technology taking over our lives and things like that are very real concerns in today's culture.
Old 10-02-08 | 09:34 AM
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and oh, can someone explain how the soldier and Rosario fell into the liquid nitrogen with little or no injury? is that possible? i thought for sure they were dead when it happened.
Old 10-02-08 | 10:44 AM
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Originally Posted by PopcornTreeCt
Well said.

But all those people that are smart and don't need a thesaurus surely didn't waste their time seeing Eagle Eye?
I did.

It was every bit as dull as I had expected it to be. Whomever wound up editing this film needs to realize that cutting between action, literally, nearly every second does not aid in allowing the viewer a sense of the scope or drama that is unfolding on screen. Instead, it merely serves to fracture the already weak story.

As to the fall into liquid nitrogen, I believe that the liquid resting beneath that bridge was merely water. The liquid nitrogen was housed within her "brain," and was the liquid that the minuteman was draining at the end.

(I believe my biggest flaw in this was that, for as much power and seeming intelligence A.R.I.A. had, she failed to use it in a way that was in her best interest. She never stopped the elevator that led directly into her command center. Had she done this after realizing the gravity of her situation, Rosario Dawson and the minuteman would not have been able to gain access to the room, and, thus, would have been unable to stop her. Just shut down the elevator.)
Old 10-02-08 | 12:44 PM
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Originally Posted by Giantrobo
I hear you but I don't think it's the subject matter as much as it's the poor handling of the issues. Cloning, technology gone wild, technology taking over our lives and things like that are very real concerns in today's culture.
You are right, these themes are always covered poorly. If you want to see a good sci-fi alien-themed movie, someone has got to adapt Arthur C. Clarke's CHILDHOOD'S END and RAMA books already.
Old 10-02-08 | 04:20 PM
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I enjoyed it quite a bit. Thought Shia was great, and it was overall entertaining.
Old 10-02-08 | 05:59 PM
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Originally Posted by toddly6666
You are right, these themes are always covered poorly. If you want to see a good sci-fi alien-themed movie, someone has got to adapt Arthur C. Clarke's CHILDHOOD'S END and RAMA books already.
Childhood's End is my favorite Clarke book, but I fear what would happen if Hollywood got their hands on it today.

Whatever happened to Fincher's proposed all CGI version of Rendezvous with Rama? In the wake of Avatar, that could make a great 3D CGI film.


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