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Red Eye - 4 stars

“Red Eye” is a very competent thriller directed by Wes Craven (“Wes Craven’s New Nightmare”, “Scream”) that is along the lines of “Phone Booth” and “Panic Room”. It’s primarily set on a plane and it’s a lot better than “Executive Decision” and “Flightplan”.

In “Red Eye”, a hard-working hotel manager by the name of Lisa (Rachel McAdams “Mean Girls”, “Sherlock Holmes”) is on a flight to home in Miami and meets the seemingly friendly Jackson (Cillian Murphy “Batman Begins”) but soon Lisa finds herself caught up in assassination attempt. Jackson tells her that her father (Brian Cox “Manhunter”) will be killed unless she helps change rooms for an important homeland security figure in order to aid his murder.

Rachel McAdams is very entertaining and convincing and transition from being sweet and innocent near the beginning to being brutalised towards the end is done very well. Cillian Murphy is excellent as no matter how gentlemanly he acts, there is always something creepy about the guy. The interactions between the two are very convincing and it’s great to see both very laidback and then very high intensity interactions as the film progresses. Brian Cox is also fairly good but has very few scenes. The other characters are a little dull.

“Red Eye” is a terrific thriller because of the performances and it remains relatively believable throughout. However, you could argue that the assassination plan seems a little too reliant on having Lisa co-operate. If you liked “Phone Booth” and “Panic Room” then I can see no real reason why you wouldn’t enjoy “Red Eye” because it’s yet another intelligent thriller. Perhaps the film’s greatest strength is that it keeps the intensity and thrills after the plane lands for some thrilling chase and confrontation sequences. Overall, if you want a smart thriller with very good performances then you should definitely check out “Red Eye”.

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