Rachel Mcadams Movie:

		List Price: $14.98		Label: Dreamworks Video Salesrank: 40037 Released: September 9, 2008
		Our Price: $7.78
		Used Price: $7.62
		MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Media: DVD

Editorial Review:
Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 09/09/2008 Run time: 85 minutes Rating: Pg13

Red Eye Reviews:
a winning performance by Rachel McAdams . . .
2009-09-20 - Horror specialist Wes Craven's Red Eye (2005) is a thriller that despite some logical snags, and an unlikely conclusion, is still effective and exciting. Brushing the flaws aside is not too difficult, when Rachel McAdams (Mean Girls) delivers a marvelous credible performance that evolves from engaging to riveting. McAdams plays Lisa Reisert, a traveler returning from Dallas, back to Miami. Because she works in reservations and hospitality at a luxury hotel, Lisa becomes the key player in an elaborate plot to murder a VIP guest. A random meeting at the airport with a charming stranger (Cillian Murphy), seems quite innocent, even when the quiet Jackson Rippner winds up in the seat next to Lisa on the red eye flight to Miami. The two seem to be getting along wonderfully, but the light conversation comes to an abrupt end, when Rippner tells Lisa that her father will die, unless she makes a call and gets the targeted guest relocated to a specific room.

This rather weak premise is the lynchpin for everything that happens from here, and though quite tenuous, it still seems to fly. Lisa's world becomes one of fear and anxiety as she tries to find a way out. Most of the screentime is of the pair sitting side by side, engaged in a deadly drama, which somehow remains a private matter between the two. At the opportune moment, Lisa acts decisively, but Jack is quite relentless, leading to an unexpected and violent confrontation.

The inspired performances by Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy, help to smooth over some of the absurdities, and make the film worth watching. The dialog is quite good for a film in this genre, and the action and fighting scenes at the finale are pretty slickly executed under Craven's direction. Rated PG-13, Red Eye has few wasted moments. There are some nice extras that include a couple of featurettes, and a commentary track with director Wes Craven, producer Marianne Maddalena, and editor Patrick Lussier. The film also benefits from Marco Beltrami's effective musical score.

A Propaganda Horror Film
2009-08-03 - The story begins at an airport, there is a problem when checking in, but it is solved by Lisa. She is on the phone to her Dad. At the airport she meets a friendly stranger. They converse about their lives. [Do you suspect something?] They are seated together and the talk continues. The jetplane takes off at night. Lisa is pumped for personal information. Her companion seems mysterious until he reveals his purpose. Lisa must cooperate with him to save her Dad's life! What did she write in the book? Jack retrieves the book and orders Lisa to make that call to the hotel to change the room number of Mr. Keefe, the VIP from Homeland Security. Events delay the call to keep the suspense. What can she do to foil the plan? Jack is well-prepared to confound her attempt. Can she trust somebody like Jack? [Why doesn't she just scream or something?]

Lisa makes the call to switch the room. [Would this be accepted in the real world?] Will Lisa make another attempt? "Where'd she go?" Why can't she call for help? Where are the police? Will the warning arrive in time? There is an advantage to 4-wheel drive [product placement]. Jack shows up like an undying monster in an old horror movie. [Imagine what Lisa could do with a pistol?] The suspense builds up until the ending. "Are you OK?" "Fill out a comment card" says Lisa. [What is her relationship with her fill-in?]

There is no final scene to explain what happened because that would end the fantasy. The story is simple and has to be stretched out with padding. This is basically a short story expanded to a feature film. Would the story be different if Lisa's Dad lived in a small home instead of a mansion? Note the lack of people in that neighborhood and the absence of patrol cars. The last mistake was the attempt on Lisa's Dad who knew nothing. Jack was the loose end who could lead to the others.


Suspense, Thrills, Chills
2009-02-24 - SOME SPOILERS INCLUDED.

I'm surprised there isnt more commentary on this wonderful, little thriller. I had forgotten about it until Batman reminded me of Cillian Murphy.. so I went looking for his films.

In this taut suspense-thriller, Murphy plays a charming stranger that our protagonist, Lisa, meets on a Red Eye flight to Miami. Their chemistry is immediate and she finds herself drawn to the attractive guy with the intense blue eyes. The first part of the movie misleads the viewer into letting down their guard and joining in their flirtation.

But their meeting was not happenstance instead it's part of a larger plot involving a political assassination that Murphy's character "Jackson Rippner" (yes, even Jackson is in on the joke) has orchestrated as a "manager" of government overthrows and high profile assassinations.

What follows in the second half is an intense mind game/power struggle between Lisa and her tormentor, all on-board an airplane. This claustrophobic scene plays particularly well and both actors should be commended on their performances. They are so real that the instances of violence really shock. (particularly the knock-out scene)

The last part of the movie amps up the action and pushes our characters into a showdown. While at this point it becomes less realistic, it does offer some fun action including an explosion thrown in for good measure.

While I fully expected Murphy's suave, arrogant character to get the beat-down that he so deserved, I did find the shift from the ultra-controlled, condesending assassin to the less than effective killer to be a bit "off" but I was the only one in my family that noted it so it just must be me. (yeah, yeah, he was stabbed and shot, that will put anyone off their game)

Don't let the PG13 rating put you off.. it's tense. The violence isn't over-the-top gore but it is effective. The film's short running time keeps everything in motion. And I liked Rippner's ambiguous end. Perhaps they had a sequel in mind?

The Flight That Will Keep You Up All Night
2008-07-18 - The Good Things
*Good video quality. Presented in Widescreen, enhanced for 16:9 TVs.
*Contains a few special features; a commentary, a couple of featurettes, and outtakes/bloopers.
*A few well-placed special effects and action scenes.
*Very thrilling and interesting story. It's short and simple, but brilliant and well-made.
*Characters are good. They're not terribly well-developed, but for the first half-hour, the protagonist and antagonist share some interesting and believable interactions. Their conflict later on is more intense that way, too. Acting is great; the bad guy was quite menacing and memorable.
*Pretty good dialogue.
*Just a little bit of violence towards the end; it's a bit gnarly, but nothing too intense (although this can be bad if you're looking for blood and guts).
*My copy came with a cool lenticular slipcover.

The Bad Things
*Slow to start.
*One or two of the characters do act a little dumb (makes you want to shout at them, "Don't do that!" or "Run!!" or something. Could also be considered suspenseful, though).

It's a very classy, simple idea that warrants an intruiging story; what would happen if you're on a plane and forced to help an assasin carry out his mission? The acting makes the story believable, immersive, and fascinating. The final confrontation is gripping. Altogether, despite being short and simple, it's a surprisingly thrilling film.

Hitchcockian Thriller from Horror Master Craven
2008-06-13 - I've always been a fan of Wes Craven's films. He brings a wonderfully dark sense of humor, a deep sense of literacy (the man was, I believe, an English professor before he started making horror flicks) and a great storytelling ability to whatever he does. While his track record is imperfect (Cursed is pretty wretched), his duds are few and fade out in the great white glare of classics like Last House on the Left and A Nightmare on Elm Street. He has the rare ability to create total environments in which to house his stories; even when the material is fantastic, as with the Elm Street films, Shocker or Serpent and the Rainbow, it's grounded in a psychological reality everybody can recognize. It's the human dimension of his movies that lift them apart from a lot of the shlock horror fare that's out there, in which two-dimensional characters exist solely to be ripped apart in gooey ways.

Which brings us to Red Eye, which is not a horror movie per se, although it contains horrific and timely elements (the fear of terrorism, with its randomness, informs and heightens the claustrophobia). Red Eye is a taut Hitchcockian thriller in which a young professional woman played by Rachel McAdams (The Wedding Crashers) takes a red eye flight back to her home in Miami after attending her grandmother's funeral. It develops that her seatmate (the Irish actor Cillian Murphy, playing an American hit man with hypnotic, creepy brio)is finessing an assassination plot on a high-ranking government official who's staying at the hotel McAdams manages. The entire second act of the film takes place in the plane, a daring contrivance that Craven brings off with great form. What makes this movie Hitchcockian is, of course, the close-quarter threat (Lifeboat, Rope, Rear Window) and the bomb in plain sight/ticking clock element, as McAdams races against time to prevent the assassination and foil Murphy's designs.

But what really stands out about the movie, and I think the reason I bought it after renting it a couple of years ago and forgetting much of the plot, is the incredibly strong female lead. McAdams is sexy, smart, self-reliant and ingenious, and much of the fun of the film is watching Murphy's cocksure assassin lose control of the reins, as McAdams not only fails to be intimidated by him but actually shows herself to be the craftier--because more imaginative, and flexible--of the two.

I recommend this movie unreservedly (pun intended).