Eagle Eye (Blu-ray)

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Video:
DreamWorks present the film on Blu-ray disc in its original 2.35:1 widescreen aspect ratio using a dual-layer BD50, 1080p, MPEG-4/AVC transfer. As with so many action thrillers these days, this one has a dark, gritty look to it, yet despite its intentionally dusky palette, it comes off pretty well, with deep black levels, solid colors, and fairly good high definition, although there are still occasional instances of softness, probably inherent to the original filming. Facial tones are usually natural in appearance, and beyond a fine, natural print grain, the screen is generally clean and clear.

Audio:
The movie sports an action flick's typically robust soundtrack, this time in lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1, with plenty of deep, taut bass, strong dynamic impact, and plentiful surround activity. Indeed, there is almost as much response from the side and rear channels as from the front channels. The trouble I had with the regular Dolby Digital sound on the standard-def disc was that it was so nonstop noisy that the loudest passages tended to obscure the film's dialogue. With the TrueHD I didn't have this concern. I was able to decipher all of the character's speech no matter what the background effects were like. Moreover, directivity is as exceptional as ever, so expect to hear explosions, crashes, booms, bangs, gunshots, subway trains, speeding cars, helicopters, airplanes, you name it, from all six or eight speakers. The soundtrack remains overly busy, true, but at least it's smoother and clearer in TrueHD than in its lossy, brighter, edgier Dolby Digital counterpart.

Extras:
This Blu-ray disc contains everything that DreamWorks put on their 2-Disc Special Edition, which means the usual load of bonus items, this time almost entirely in high definition. As I was watching them the first time around, I couldn't help wondering how much money studios must spend on filming and assembling these things. I mean, studios must have whole crews out filming the filming. We've even had some documentaries on the filming of documentaries about the filming of movies; take the making of "Hearts of Darkness," for instance, the documentary on the making of "Apocalypse Now." And why is it that studios always feel that the better the film did at the box office, the more extras they need to include on the special editions? Shouldn't it be the other way around? They don't need to "sell" a popular title to the buying public; they'll buy it in any case. I dunno. Life is a mystery.

First up among the extras are four deleted scenes, including an alternate ending, lasting about four-and-a-half minutes. After that is a twenty-five-minute, behind-the-scenes documentary, "Asymmetrical Warfare: The Making of Eagle Eye." It's nothing we haven't seen before. Then there is a six-minute featurette, "Eagle Eye on Location: Washington, D.C.," about the famous locations the filmmakers used. Next up is the nine-minute featurette "Is My Cell Phone Spying on Me?," which reiterates the movie's premise that people are watching us all the time, followed by the nine-minute "Shall We Play a Game?," wherein director D.J. Caruso converses with his old mentor, director John Badham ("War Games").

Additionally, we get a brief, three-minute featurette, "Road Trip," detailing some of the location shooting with the cast and crew; a seven-minute gag reel; a photo gallery (SD); and a widescreen theatrical trailer.

Things finish up with twenty-four scene selections and bookmarks; pop-up menus; English, French, and Spanish spoken languages; English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese subtitles; and English captions for the hearing impaired.

Parting Shots:
The question, I suppose, is why some movies just as preposterous as "Eagle Eye" can get away with their far-fetched action while others, like this one, just make us roll our eyes and groan. The answer obviously is in the movie's tone. Either a movie has to make light of the improbable action, as the "Indiana Jones" or " Die Hard" series do, or make the action seem at least remotely possible, as Christopher Nolan's "Batman" films or the Daniel Craig Bond films do. The biggest problem with "Eagle Eye" is that it takes itself too seriously without making us believe in any of it.

Let me put it another way: There is no reason why a good action movie, no matter how harebrained it may be, cannot satisfy even the most demanding audience. The trick is for it to follow its own internal logic; it must adhere to the rules it sets down for itself. Otherwise, viewers have no reason to suspend their disbelief. "Eagle Eye" does not follow its own rules; it tries to be realistic yet it's absurd at the same time, and the result is disconcerting.

Nevertheless, if you're an action fan, the movie's got plenty of that--action--even if it's "plenty" to the point of being tiresome. More important, this is a movie made not only for action fans but for audiovisual enthusiasts as well, with a big emphasis on the lossless TrueHD audio.

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