Red Eye review

I went out for a cheap thrill and came back having experienced as much. This movie is 85 minutes of pure cinema goodness. I liked how director Wes Craven limited the violence and chose to focus more on character interaction. Some reviewers have made comparisons to Hitchcock in regards to this movie, and in a lot of ways, I happen to agree with them. The protagonist, Cillian Murphy (who plays Jackson Rippner, a professional who specializes in "high profile assassinations and flashy government overthrows"), does an excellent job building up the suspense. He was the perfect choice for the role of the "nice- guy- turned- wacko" (I was a fan of him as The Scarecrow in Batman Begins as well). Rachel Reisert (played by Rachel McAdams), a hotel manager, is innocent enough to fall for his charm before he hits her with the news: he is assigned to aid in the assassination of the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, who is staying at her hotel. If she doesn't make the call ala Air Fone for him to switch rooms, her dad gets killed. "One call and it'll all be over," he reassures her. Of course, the movie gets complicated fast, as Rachel tries her best to escape the clutches of Jackson Rippner (sounds an awful lot like Jack the Ripper... and yes, that gets brought up in the movie, to which Rippner responds, "Yeah, I hated my parents for naming me that. But then I killed them."). Of course, there was still a fair share of cheesy, unbelievable moments, but what movie is completely devoid of such things? I was able to quickly forgive Craven and walk out of the theater in delight.