RED EYE
Red Eye is a perfect movie. It’s not remarkable or even endlessly rewatchable, I think it’s just perfect though. It’s 85 minutes long. Do you know how perfect that is? To be 85 minutes long? That’s wonderful. Not a frame wasted. It’s just Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy on a plane together being directed by Wes Craven and it’s all over before you ever start to think “How much longer does this have to go?” Red Eye is like a regular non-fun-sized non-king-sized chocolate bar. It is a perfect treat.
Red Eye is an easy watch and it’s fun and you’re going to have a good time. Rachel McAdams plays Lisa who is at the airport. She meets a man named Jackson played by Cillian Murphy, who is very charming. She boards a flight. The man is in the seat next to her. He stops being charming. He becomes quite mean. He becomes terrorist mean and threatens to kill her dad if she doesn’t make a phone call to the hotel she works for. Also, Brian Cox plays Rachel McAdams dad and isn’t mean to her once so it turns out he can play all sorts of dads on screen.
Most of the film takes place in those two seats on that plane, and so few films believe in themselves like that. But the reason more people don’t talk about Red Eye and the reason it doesn’t move up into any kind of classic popcorn film status is because there’s something missing. It’s probably the absolutely batshit ending involving a rocket launcher on a boat being fired at a hotel. Probably.
Where would I fit into a movie that doesn’t have room for me? The movie has absolutely no need for anybody beyond McAdams and Murphy and like three other people so how could it possibly find room for me? I’ll tell you where, on that plane. You don’t think I’d pay for the cheapest flight possible? You don’t think I’d get myself a red eye from Dallas to Miami? You think I’m better than taking a flight like that? If it’s good enough for a hotel manager and a domestic terrorist then you best believe it’s good enough for me, Peter Jones.
IF I WERE IN 'RED EYE' I WOULD: TELL PEOPLE ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED ON MY FLIGHT BUT ONLY THE PART WHERE I THOUGHT THE WOMAN NEXT TO BE WAS ‘INCREDIBLY RUDE’ WHEN SHE DIDN’T ANSWER ME WHEN I ASKED ‘HAVE WE LANDED?’
