A Craven effort.
by
Jon Dunmore © 17 Apr 2007.
The
setup of RED EYE is thriller-worthy: a charming stranger (Cillian Murphy) insinuates himself
into the good graces of a young woman traveling alone (Rachel McAdams) on a Red
Eye flight from Dallas to Miami.
 The
exposition is dynamic: because she is virtually trapped in the airplane, seated
beside him, the stranger's beguiling attitude suddenly becomes very cold as he
outlines a plot to her - he holds her father hostage (a very slim, very underused
Brian Cox), to blackmail her into being complicit in the assassination of a senator.
But
the denouement is dreary: like the Red Eye flight their characters spend most
of the movie on, director Wes Craven and writers, Carl Ellsworth and Dan Foos
have nowhere to go but down, as we once again realize that American senators DO
NOT get assassinated in American movies of this weak-chested ilk. This is not
an Oliver Stone or Clint Eastwood film - those guys can get away with almost anything
- this is Wes Craven, the man who brought us THE HILLS HAVE EYES (1977), SWAMP THING (1982) and SCREAM (1996). No big leaps of bravura.
Consequently, the outrageous assassination attempt (launching a rocket from a
boat in the ocean to the penthouse suite of a hotel on the shore) reeks of desperation
to inject the dragging plot with some kind of Van Damme-ish audacity.
But
as the movie drags on, the longer it keeps going, the less and less it compels,
until the last act's obligatory and interminable Chase Sequences only serve to
dull an already blunt climax. Like
reading this review, by the end of the movie, you find yourself asking, "Is
that it?" Yes.
Yes it is.
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