Big sister is watching

Steven Spielberg had an idea for a movie, or at least a vision of people leaving the theater in fear of their BlackBerrys. Director D.J. Caruso and slacker icon Shia LeBeouf needed a follow-up to their Hitchcockian hit Disturbia. A team of screenwriters digested North By Northwest, The Matrix, 2001: A Space Odyssey and ... well, "shit out" conjures an unappetizing image, and Eagle Eye is not shit. Implausibly set up, over-the-top when it comes to car chases and crash scenes, and pretty allegoric in a message-heavy way by the conclusion, but not excremental.

It just seemed like it was heading for a flushing when Lebeouf shows up as Jerry Shaw, nearly impossible not to think of as Disturbia's Kale several years out of high school. An ATM indicates someone has deposited $750,000 in Jerry's account before spitting money at him, UPS leaves a weapons cache with his landlady, and a woman begins calling him on his cell insisting he follow her instructions. Meanwhile, the single mother (Michelle Monaghan) of a trumpet-playing grammar-school student starts getting calls from the same woman. Rachel does as she's told when her son's image is broadcast on a television screen at McDonald's, demonstrating the long reach of the mystery woman, or the entity she represents. Long reach, as in she/they can manipulate every electronic or computerized device in existence to make Jerry and Rachel carry out their orders, setting up a major plot that affects the highest levels of government.

As preposterous and heavy-handed as the set up is, the story does begin to make sense right about the time of the last major car crash. But this is a state-of-the-art conspiracy film without suspense, only blockbuster-style action. Caruso is a master at weaving cinematic swipes into a whole new tapestry, but Spielberg might be the wrong go-to guy for the yarn next time.

MATT KELEMEN