Movie Info

RATING:

PG-13 for some intense sequences of violence, and language.

RELEASED:

Aug. 19, 2005

GENRE:

Drama, Thriller

STARRING:

Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy, Brian Cox, Jack Scalia, Jayma Mays

DIRECTORS:

Chris Bender, Wes Craven, Marianne Maddalena

SCREENWRITER:

Carl Ellsworth

DISTRIBUTOR:

Dreamworks SKG

 

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MOVIE REVIEW

Red Eye

Dr. Tom Snyder
MovieGuide Magazine

What's This?

CBN.com – Red Eye may be one of the most emotionally satisfying, entertaining thrillers this year.

One of the reasons the movie is so entertaining is the simplicity of its plot. Rachel McAdams of The Notebook plays Lisa Reisert, a hotel reservation manager who's taking a late-night flight back to Miami, Florida after attending the funeral of her maternal grandmother. On boarding the plane, Lisa is pleasantly surprised to find that she is seated next to Jackson (Cillian Murphy), the seemingly charming man with whom she had struck up a friendly conversation while waiting in the airport terminal.

Moments after takeoff, however, Jackson informs Lisa that he has an assassin waiting to kill her beloved father at home in Miami, unless she calls her hotel and changes the room number for the arrival of the tough-minded deputy secretary of Homeland Security. With nowhere to run and no way to summon help, Lisa desperately looks for ways to thwart her ruthless captor and stop his evil plan.

Coming in at a brisk 85 minutes, Red Eye successfully builds acute tension and excitement. Though most of the focus is on two characters, director Wes Craven effectively spotlights other characters, including the spunky heroine's nervous young assistant back at the hotel. Everything leads to a satisfying ending, where the values of family, courage, compassion, determination, and the connection between a father and his daughter thwart the worst parts of the terrorists' plan. Red Eye also continues the American storytelling tradition of dark forces threatening the family, especially women and children. Thus, its story has a classic feel to it that could help it succeed at the box office.

Director Wes Craven usually does violent horror slasher movies that earn MovieGuide's rebuke. Here, however, as he did with the MovieGuide Award-winning Music of the Heart, Craven shows he is able to create an entertaining movie without resorting to excessively violent shock techniques. If Red Eye is successful, perhaps Mr. Craven can break out of the slasher horror genre and use his considerable talents in more appropriate endeavors.

Red Eye contains some foul language and a couple sexual references. There is also some alcohol use and light feminist content where villain makes sexist comparison between the intelligence of women versus men.

Please address your comments to:

David Geffen, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg
DreamWorks SKG
1000 Flower Street
Glendale, CA 91201
Phone: (818) 695-5000
Website: www.dreamworks.com

NOTE from Dr. Ted Baehr, publisher of Movieguide Magazine. For more information from a Christian perspective, order the latest Movieguide Magazine by calling 1-800-899-6684(MOVI) or visit our website at www.movieguide.org. Movieguide is dedicated to redeeming the values of Hollywood by informing parents about today's movies and entertainment and by showing media executives and artists that family-friendly and even Christian-friendly movies do best at the box office year in and year out. Movieguide now offers an online subscription to its magazine version, at www.movieguide.org. The magazine, which comes out 25 times a year, contains many informative articles and reviews that help parents train their children to be media-wise consumers.