When I first looked into watching Red Eye, I was basically 50-50 on if I wanted to see it as well as if I wanted to include it in The Countdown to Halloween celebration. Then I realized it was directed by Wes Craven and asked myself how couldn’t I include it. Red Eye was written by Carl Ellsworth who also co-wrote Disturbia that I posted previously in The Countdown. Rachel McAdams (Mean Girls, Doctor Strange, and The Notebook) is Lisa, a hotel manager on her way back to Miami after attending her grandmother’s funeral. While catching a late flight (hence the title Red Eye) she meets a man named Jackson played by Cillian Murphy who you might know better as Oppenheimer, or maybe as The Scarecrow from The Dark Knight.
Jackson is a terrorist, and he is trying to assassinate the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security who just happens to be staying at the Lux Hotel where Lisa works. He needs her to help him accomplish his task which is to get the deputy, played by Jack Scalia into a room facing the ocean so his accomplices can kill him from a boat in the Atlantic Ocean. Got all that? Good. Scalia is probably best known as being one of the hot guys in many TV shows back in the 80’s, I mean I know who he is but I’m not really sure why I know who he is. Lisa is coerced into doing what Jackson wants because Jackson has someone outside her father’s house waiting to kill him if Lisa doesn’t help. Lisa’s father is played by the great Brian Cox. I mean if you don’t know who Brian Cox is, what are you doing here? You’ve at least heard his voice doing the Bah-da-bah-bah-bahs on the McDonald’s commercials for the past few years.
Also starring as Cynthia, Lisa’s very nervous (and the source of any comedy relief we get here) assistant is Jayma Mays who you might know from the TV show Glee, but I know her from a different TV show called Trial & Error. Red Eye is serviceable with some very tense moments that finds McAdams and Murphy working well together. All in all, I’m glad I watched Red Eye and happily included it here in The Countdown to Halloween. Three surprise tracheotomies out of five for what has been called the female Diehard, and that’s high praise in my book.
This is one I almost watched back in the 2000s when I had HBO but then I never managed to watch it. Oh wait, I still have HBO apparently. Whatevs, I always knew it was a Wes Craven film so that's the only reason I wanted to watch it. And then I never did. But now you have. Life's funny sometimes.
ReplyDeleteThere was talk of a sequel to this a few years back to be called RED ANUS but it couldn't get the funding.
DeleteI like this one a lot, too. The leads are just great and the film is well done.
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