Red Eye (DVD)

Ah ha, terror in the sky as the master of horror, Wes Craven, tackles a new breed of thriller, at least for him. Red Eye has its ups and downs as this turbulent film is short and to the point, which is its secret to being a decent watch, any longer and the wheels might not have made for a safe landing, but a strong cast and an engaging story keep this one in the air.

Red Eye centers on Lisa Reisert played by the capable Rachel McAdams, whose stock has risen leaps and bounds this past year with the success of Red Eye and the laughs generated from Wedding Crashers. Lisa is flying home after attending her grandmother's funeral and the red eye flight back to Miami is set to take her there. Only problem, it's delayed, which gives Jackson Rippner enough time to sweet talk Lisa into one drink at the bar. Rippner is played by Cillian Murphy, who in my opinion is the best thing to hit theaters in a long time after his performance here and as Jonathan Crane in Batman Begins. This guy can play creepy like it is no one's business.

Anyway, Jackson and Lisa are soon set to board their plane, when luck, or bad luck in this case, would have it they are sharing an aisle, which is where our story truly begins. You see, their meeting wasn't coincidental and neither were the seating arrangements. Lisa is a senior hotel worker at the Lux Atlantic hotel in Miami, the same hotel that will be playing host to Homeland Security director Charles Keefe (Jack Scalia), and this bit of information is not at all news to Rippner. He plans on using this knowledge, Lisa's position and the threat to kill Lisa's father as leverage to assassinate Keefe from 30,000 miles in the air, which puts Lisa in a predicament you wouldn't wish on anyone.

The story plays out for about half the movie in the air and the other half on land as it becomes a race to determine whether Keefe, Lisa or Lisa's father will turn up dead or alive by the final frame.

On a whole, it is as I said before; Red Eye is just short enough to be entertaining throughout. The story loses steam as it gets close to the ending, but strong performances from McAdams and Murphy really save this one.

As for special features it isn't entirely a bunch of new goodies as a lot of the footage in the making-of featurettes was already available online, but there is an audio commentary with Craven and a few others that is slightly entertaining, you will even learn that the head of marketing at DreamWorks wound up playing a rather large part in the film. I won't tell you where, but I will say that if she is anything like the woman in this film then the marketing division at DreamWorks is run with an iron fist. My bets are it is all an act, but kudos to her debut performance.

Overall I would say Red Eye would make for a satisfying buy and certainly a worthwhile rental. Don't let the name Wes Craven scare you into thinking this is a gore fest filled with blood and monsters. Red Eye is a sophisticated thriller and it is worth a once over, if not a second viewing.