Red Eye
Reviewed by Uncle Cliff (2006)

Also reviewed by:
Johnny Five

Hey, you got to have some respect for a film that attempts a thriller in such a claustrophobic space. Or so I thought. Red Eye is touted as Wes Craven's 'back to basics' simple high-concept thriller, and while it doesn't deliver on this, it does has quite a good patch where it's just the two leads talking, the conversation weaving from the mundane awkward chit-chat that happens between strangers to something altogether more sinister before you've even realised what's happened.

That's what I hoped it was going to be. A thriller on an airplane without any dodgy action sequences like, for instance, one where anyone other than the pilot has to land the plane (if you're a pilot in a Hollywood film there seems to be a 99% mortality rate). Thankfully they manage to steer clear of such airplane movie cliché pitfalls. Hell, it didn't even really have to be set on a plane. Since it's just two people talking it could have been on a train, or even on a fucking park bench, but they're obviously preying on the public's increased fear of flying as a back-up chill factor, and for a while it seems to be working.

Then the plane landed. Once that takes place the film does everything wrong. Everything. There are car crashes, and bazookas, and former Survivor stars, and did I mention bazookas? Seriously, outside of Chuck Norris movies when the fuck does anyone use a bazooka? It's like they all missed the point of the claustrophobia they were creating on the plane, because it feels like they couldn't wait to get off it and blow some shit up.

Silly, stupid, waste of my fucking time.