The DVD of Red Eye

I purchased Wes Craven's Red Eye with some trepidation. The reviews had been mixed, plus I hadn't enjoyed the other airplane movie, Flightplan, with Jodie Foster. Still, I liked the star of the this movie, the lovely Rachel McAdams, having seen her in The Notebook, and the plot was somewhat intriguing. I'm happy to say that the movie proved to be more noteworthy than I'd originally anticipated, and the film seemed to fly by like a twister moving through east Texas. Though the ending was just a little predictable, the movie still held me by the seat of my pants, and I found myself rooting for Rachel McAdams to kick some serious butt.

The plot of Red Eye centers around Lisa (Rachel McAdams), who manages a luxury hotel in Miami, and her flight back from her grandmother's funeral. On the flight, Lisa encounters a fellow passenger named Jackson Rippner (Cillian Murphy from 28 Days--think of a young Eric Roberts), who appears nice and charming, but has deadly intentions. Sitting next to Lisa on the plane, Jackson explains to her in a soft, calm voice that if she doesn't do exactly as told, her father (Brian Cox) will be murdered. Jackson wants Lisa to call her hotel and see that a particular VIP, who's on his way to the hotel with his family, is switched to another room so that he can be killed. Lisa finds herself in somewhat of a dilemma. On the one hand, she doesn't want her father to die, while on the other, she doesn't want to set up a hotel guest to be murdered. It becomes even more crucial when she discovers that the guest and his entire family will be killed. What to do is the question. Lisa tries a number of different things to alert fellow passengers, or the crew of the airplane, but to no avail. All she ends up doing is upsetting Jackson, who quickly grows tire of her little games. As the minutes tick away, Lisa realizes that a decision of some kind will have to be made. Is she strong enough to do what's necessary? That's the real question which faces her, and it's one that had me glued to the TV screen as I awaited a solution to her dilemma.

Running at only eighty-five minutes, Red Eye is pretty much a non-stop, edge-of-your-seat thriller from a director who's better known for his horror movies. Rachel McAdams is the perfect actress to play Lisa. There's something very special about McAdams that shines on the screen. Though she's young of age, there's still a strong sense of maturity about her that causes her to seem much older than she actually is. Add to that a physical beauty that's subtle, yet mesmerizing, and you have a woman who could easily become a major movie star in the next few years. Cillian Murphy, while both handsome and menacing in his role, seemed just a tad too young for the character that he was playing. I would've expected somebody else in his mid-to-late thirties to play the character of Jackson. After all, this is supposed to be an experienced, professional assassin. It usually takes a few years to develop the necessary skills for this type of profession. Still, he did an adequate job of terrorizing Rachel McAdams. One other person I'd like to mention is Brian Cox, who played Lisa's father. I think I've seen Brian Cox in maybe thirty movies or more since he played Hannibal Lector in Manhunter back during the late eighties.. Almost every time I see him, I fail to recognize who he is because either he's lost weight, or put on weight, or disguised his facial features in some way. It's his voice that always gives him away. I would recognize his voice anywhere. I wish that he were more recognized for his acting ability by the movie community. This man can play any role he sets his mind to. To sum things up, let me once again say that Red Eye is a well executed, fast-paced thriller that delivers far more than expected for a B-movie. Even the minor characters on the airplane are given more to do than just fill the background like window dressing, as is usually the case. Rachel McAdams does a superb job of playing a person caught between a rock and hard place, and what she's able to do with an ink pen brings back fond memories of Joe Pesci in Casino. Definitely a good Saturday night movie!