Eagle Eye is one of those movies that works a lot better at home than it ever did in the theater. In theaters, when a movie falls to pieces you can't help but feel disappointed, the ten-plus dollars you spent to get inside wasted on a product that didn't even have the good sense to deliver on the minimal amounts of promise it displayed during the initial opening acts.

At home, however, a lot of those same flaws don't carry the same weight. Whether it be the fact you can pause to go to the bathroom, engage in conversation with your Uncle Bartholomew or watch the film out of the corner of your eye while you do the dishes, sometimes if the finished product is made well and has an interesting enough storyline the fact it's not as good as it could have been sort of doesn't matter.

That's Eagle Eye. While it's promising Hitchcockian tale of twenty-something Jerry Shaw (Shia LaBeouf) sleepwalking through life suddenly caught up in a massive governmental conspiracy thanks to a mysterious female voice on a cell phone doesn't work start to finish, it's still entertaining enough to overlook its third act flaws while sitting on your couch than it was in the multiplex.

I even admit right off the top that for a good hour or so I was having a blast watching this political action/thriller for a second time. Lithe, quickly paced, full of energy, creatively constructed and with some seriously sensational whiz-bang, this big budget B-movie re-teaming the director (D.J. Caruso) and star (LaBeouf) of Disturbia is, for a while there at least, one heck of a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, the simple fact is that what starts as fast and furiously entertaining potboiler easy to roll with suddenly becomes one of the more incredulously asinine and unintentionally silly pieces of work 2008 had to offer. At a certain point when the SAL-9000 sci-fi lunacy starts spiraling out of control the movie falls apart in idiotic fireballs of cliché, corniness and implausibility any chance to roll with its punches thrown right out the window.

Admittedly, this Enemy of the State meets Marathon Man meets Stealth hybrid flashes some fantastic set pieces, a stunning car chase through a crane-infested junkyard full of flying cars just one of series of escapes so good even Jason Bourne might come away impressed. LaBeouf and costar Michelle Monaghan have decently engaging chemistry, while old pro Billy Bob Thornton adds more gravitas than these silly proceedings probably deserve.

The problem is, as nice as these moments are and as hard as the performers try there just isn't any reason to stick with Eagle Eye start to finish. The climax becomes a series of mind-blowing idiocies so far-fetched all you can really do is sit back and laugh. This film doesn't just waste its early promise, it destroys it with a cacophony of screeching tires, bullet fire, massive explosions and slow motion. While all of this is easier to bear at home, it still isn't enough so to warrant purchasing the DVD.

Granted, said Two-Disc Special Edition is fairly sturdy. While the standard EPK and behind-the-scenes docs are only okay, two of the other featurettes are actually kind of wonderful. "Shall We Play a Game?" is a surprisingly interesting conversation between Caruso and his mentor Wargames director John Badham; "Is My Cell Phone Spying On Me?" an impressively evenhanded look at technology and privacy.

The first spotlights interesting information behind the makings of this film and Badham's classic techno thriller, the latter talks about the threats to American civil liberties more candidly and honestly than I'd ever thought possible. Both are extremely engaging, and even though I'm not a huge fan of the film itself I'm almost willing to urge renting it if only for the opportunity to give these two extras a look.

The rest of the features are the usual assortment of gag reel, photo gallery, theatrical trailer and deleted scenes (in this case an alternate ending). Of them, the first has a very funny ad lib from Thornton towards the end while the fourth starts stupidly but actually builds to something fairly creepy and potentially intriguing. They don't go beyond the usual, however, and even if you are a fan of the movie none of them are worth more than a cursory glance.