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Ridley Coote

Red Eye (2005) Dir: Wes Craven

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Wes Craven has a lot of iconic films in his filmography, be it 'A Nightmare On Elm Street' or those in the 'Scream' franchise, but one that might not be known to many is his 2005 thriller; 'Red Eye'. The film has pretty average reviews, but I was hoping it would turn out to be underrated.


The first act was a little too slow for my tastes, and ultimately the film as a whole felt too long, which isn't great considering it's less than ninety minutes long. There were great periods of inactivity, each of which dragged greatly. The more high action scenes were much easier to watch, but too few and far between.


The film teased, or gave attention to, a number of characters, as if they were going to have some significant relevance to the plot, only for them to do next to nothing. It was a strange choice by Craven, especially considering what each character did; not very much.


The narrative was fine, but it struggled to keep me engaged. A lack of any significant subplots was a considerable factor in this, as well as generally bland screenplay, which seemed to not know how to capitalise on its own premise. I found myself feeling a little bored, to be honest.


Rachel McAdams was the best thing about the film by quite some way, with her solid acting holding the film together firmer than it should've had to. Honestly, if she had given a poor performance, this film would have been so much worse.


Cillian Murphy didn't give one of his better performances, if I'm honest. His accent wasn't all that convincing and his actual acting left much to be desired, especially by his standards. In fairness, his character was as weak as water, which didn't do him any favours.


In terms of the supporting cast, there wasn't really a lot going on, but I'll give mentions to Brian Cox and Jayma Mays for their very small roles. Mays was the better of the two, for anyone wondering.


Overall, this was a bit of a mediocre thriller, unfortunately. I was hoping for more, but it failed to entice me anymore than the minimum. The premise had potential, but the film degenerated into a generic film, which failed to live up to Craven's best work.



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