Eagle Eye Isn't 20/20

Eagle Eye

(PG-13)

originally published October 1, 2008

Eagle Eye would have benefited by more input from executive producer Steven Spielberg, who came up with the flick's germ of an idea a few years ago. Too bad neither he nor producers, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, the duo who wrote Transformers and helped create Fox's new hit, "Fringe," didn't give an assist to the four credited screenwriters. Eagle Eye should be as tasty as the butter-slathered popcorn that accompanies it. Instead, it's got all the empty calories with none of the greasy, imitation deliciousness. Slacker Jerry Shaw (Shia LaBeouf) starts receiving mysterious phone calls leading him across the country on a mission with national security implications. Soon, the FBI, the Air Force (in which his recently deceased twin served), and the Pentagon are searching for Jerry and his partner, single mom Rachel Holloman (Michelle Monaghan), as they get closer and closer to the target selected by the shady lady on the phone.

The second Hitch-knockoff by LaBeouf and his Disturbia director D.J. Caruso isn't nearly as satisfying as their previous team-up. Eagle Eye is interesting and engaging, but it is not the least bit fun. The tedious setup, almost all of it seen in the trailer, actually gives way to an intriguing scenario whose course I couldn't plot, and whose destination I wanted to reach. Too bad getting there is so bumpy. The purely functional film is just plain ugly to watch, and it's tiring to boot. The entire film seems to take place on the run. LaBeouf and Monaghan run to and from wherever the evil GPS console (voiced by Julianne Moore) directs them, while Billy Bob Thornton's FBI agent runs after them. To break the monotony, stuff explodes. The movie's tone is far too grim for a wrong man on the run techno-thriller, yet it is too immaturely concerned with how fast it can go and how big its explosions can be to delve into the questions of dwindling civil liberties it raises. It's already depressing enough to think that we may live in an Orwellian world where the government (or a private entity with the means) can track our every move; does Eagle Eye have to be such a downer too?

Drew Wheeler

Pure Palahniuk

Choke

(R)

originally published October 1, 2008

Chuck Palahniuk's satirical Choke opens with a warning. "If you're going to read this, don't bother," cautions narrator Victor Mancini.

Victor (Sam Rockwell) proclaims himself to be a pretty bad guy. He's a sex addict who cruises sex addiction recovery meetings to pick up chicks. By day, he reenacts history as the backbone of Colonial America, an Irish indentured servant. By night, he chokes on food so he can financially leach off the kindness of his saviors. He also dropped out of medical school. In his defense, he visits his mother, Ida (Angelica Huston), a lot in the depressing hospital paid for by his strange lifesavers. As Ida's health takes a turn for the worse, Victor ramps up his attempts to learn the identity of his father, who just might be divine, with the help of his mother's new doctor, Paige Marshall (Kelly Macdonald, No Country for Old Men), whom, incidentally, Victor would love to bed, and his best friend, another sex addict/historical reenactor Denny (Brad Michael Henke). Constantly flashing back to his unconventional upbringing by a criminal mother, Victor finds it harder and harder to be as bad as he thinks he should be.

First-time director Clark Gregg doesn't burden Choke with overstylization. He is not David Fincher. His film is not Fight Club, an important film to which comparisons are unfair but unavoidable. Choke is much simpler, less high-concept, and Gregg is exacting in his adaptation. His film perfectly mimics the absurd, anarchic tone of Palahniuk's novel. Like that novel, the film unfolds in an episodic, unconnected way that doesn't quite build to anything. The "aha!" moment never arrives. But Victor's various misadventures are as funny on the big screen as on the page. The likably unlikable Rockwell is a perfect Victor. Like Billy Bob Thornton, the sly, eternally youthful Rockwell excels at playing exceptionally flawed characters; unlike Thornton, he never overplays those faults for cheap laughs (yet). The rest of the cast does what they can with characters that exist merely to advance Victor's agendas, a fault of the novel, not of Gregg's screenplay.

Gregg's film version of Choke fails to accomplish any goal larger than humorously and bawdily tweaking society, at which it enthusiastically succeeds. Choke may be nothing more than a funny riff on modern civilization, but at least it's funny.

Drew Wheeler