Eagle Eye (2008)

"Eagle Eye" is an entertaining flick. It races at a brisk pace and has enough action, stunt work and explosions to keep the mind from wandering, and the always rockin' Billy Bob Thornton is back in a government hard-ass role similar to his cool turn in "Armageddon." But it wasn't even a quarter of the way into this Steven Spielberg-produced movie that I realized I'd watched this many times before, most notably in the classic "North by Northwest" and several Will Smith movies.

Shia LaBeouf (not Cary Grant or Smith) stars as Jerry Shaw, the ne'er do well twin brother of a highly decorated, recently killed Air Force officer (also LaBeouf). The day after his twin is buried, though, Jerry's empty bank account suddenly is flush with money and his apartment is loaded wall to wall with fake passports, explosives and guns. Jerry stupidly takes the cash and handles just about every weapon before his cell phone rings and a cold female voice warns him to flee before the FBI arrives. Meanwhile, a single mom (Michelle Monaghan) receives a call from the same voice, ordering her to take a nearby car and drive away or her young son will be killed. The two soon meet and are ordered to Washington, D.C., with the entire federal government on the hunt.

Without giving away the busy plot's boring instigator, I will say this: I was deeply surprised that Spielberg could be behind such a cliched, obvious twist that a pre-teen could figure it out. Spielberg apparently kicked this plot around for years, before handing it off to helmer D. J. Caruso (who directed La Beauf in "Disturbia"). True to its background, "Eagle Eye" plays exactly as a second-rate idea that's been dusted off and re-gifted. There are far too many gaping plot holes to ignore, and the ending is too implausible to bear. (Spoiler alert: The hero lives, when, in fact, the remains of his bullet-riddled body would fit inside a Tic Tac box had this been real. Also, if the Secret Service were this dumb, we'd cycle through presidents like condoms at a frat house.)

Still, LaBeouf, Monoghan and an awesome Thornton (as an FBI agent), plus some truly great stunt work and car crashes, save the film from a crash and burn. A paper-thin marginal thumbs up. B-