Red Eye by Carl Ellsworth - Seven out of 10

Red Eye by Carl Ellsworth

Seven out of 10

The reasons for the appreciation of the critics, manifest in the Metascore of 71, escapes this viewer, unless of course they have applauded the acting of the lead actress, Rachel McAdams and some of the formula used by Cillian Murphy…Brian cox is very good, evidently, but he has a minor, almost insignificant part.

Lisa Reisert aka Rachel McAdams is an executive in a hotel that awaits a Very Important Visitor, who seems to be the only one who could take some rather minor decisions in that place – already one of the quite numerous flaws in the plot, although quite important hotels can make disastrous decisions: take the Radisson in Bucharest- they have placed scaffolding on one side, about one month ago and nothing happened in the meantime and this is just one of the many, infuriating mismanagement steps they keep taking there.

On the plane she takes to Miami, she is practically kidnapped by Jackson Rippner – with a hint at Jack the Ripper – aka Cillian Murphy, who has a diabolical plan to follow and needs her help.

If she does not cooperate, her father Joe aka Brian cox would die and he proves that he may be in a position to do so- through an intermediary parked in a BMW outside his house – by showing the wallet that her father had just told her he had lost as they had spoken on the phone.

Another slight flaw, or maybe a major one, it still does not look like ‘solid evidence’ that the vile man has the power to execute the parent and we are used with proof of life before doing anything for the vicious criminals.

Lisa is supposed to call the hotel and change the room of the new Homeland Secretary to a new suit, where he presumably could be targeted by some assassins that are dispatched in the area, from the airplane or else father Joe is dead.

As we expect – and by the way, it may be the wrong assessment, but this film seems brimful of clichés – the heroine tries all the tricks she can think of to deter, confuse, and target the criminal she has in the seat next to her.

She calls from the airplane, but the line is disconnected and she still pretends to be talking and making the changes she had been required and when she tries to inform another passenger of the danger, she is head butted by the ruthless Jack the new Ripper and rendered unconscious.

He explains to the alarmed stewardess, when this one sees that Lisa is crying that she had lost a dear one, and then follows her to the toilet, where the heroine had tried to write that he has a bomb.

A child that is wanting for her turn outside sees that the man is entering with the woman and knows this is not right, alerts the flight attendant, who smiles and says this is ‘that kind of flight’, but still admonishes the smiling villain and tells him this ‘is not a motel”.

Eventually, when Charles Keefe, the new Homeland Secretary, and his family arrive at the hotel, they learn that they have a different room and when they ask what happened, they are told Lisa changed it…

Oh! She did?

Yes

Then it is all right…

This is not the dialogue, but it might have been and anyway the decision is that they would take the new room and this is not believable, given that he has a trained security detail and any rookie, indeed, even cinephiles could tell him this is not acceptable and dangerous.

The brilliant bodyguards do see a yacht too near the hotel, alert the authorities, but when they search the vessel they find nothing suspicious, for the bazookas, nuclear bombs and whatever else they had were laid under the boat…

In other words, at times the screenplay seems ludicrous and infuriating at others, for it looks more than improbable, downright impossible.

Since the Coast Guard or whoever checked the yacht could not find any threats left, they take out the missile launcher and…

Boom!

They destroy the upper floors of the hotel.

It is a hyperbole.

Nonetheless, it makes one wonder: since they had the means to do all that damage and the vileness, monstrosity, why stop there and not use something that would really make their villainous, bestial point?!

It all seems sloppy and preposterous.