Red Eye (2005)
Directed by Wes Craven
An overnight flight to Miami quickly becomes a battle for survival when Lisa realizes her seatmate plans to use her as part of a chilling assassination plot against the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security. If she refuses to cooperate, her own father will be killed. As the miles tick by, she's in a race against time to find a way to warn the potential victims before it's too late.
4 connections found
View:
4 connections, in both directions
What critics compared Red Eye to
It's risible nonsense, blessed with plot holes that make the fractures in the fuselage seem insignificant, and not a patch on Wes Craven's Red Eye (or indeed Robert Schwentke's Flightplan ), which did these upmarket airborne B-movie thrills with far more wit and panache.
Like “Panic Room” (2002), “Phone Booth” (2002), and “Red Eye” (2005), it sets up a situation in which a protagonist is under threat in a confined or limited space and has to use his or her wits to survive and win.
Try 2005's " Flightplan ," 2005's " Red Eye ," or even 2006's " Snakes on a Plane ," and treat this disappointing entry as the afterthought it finally becomes.
Because of Liam Neeson’s presence, some have described “Non-Stop” as “’Taken on a Plane,” but a more apt description would be “Speed on a Red Eye,” as in the underrated 2005 Wes Craven thriller “ Red Eye .”
Recently, director Wes Craven worked creative variations on claustrophobic thrills in "Red Eye"; "Flightplan," less successfully, embarked on guessing games aboard a jumbo jetliner in peril.
It is a familiar premise, reminding you of a film such as Red Eye featuring Cillian Murphy and Rachel McAdams.
Working from a script by hired hand Carl Ellsworth (Red Eye and Disturbia and similar late-2000s thriller fare, the aforementioned kinds of movies “they” just don’t make anymore), Borte’s storytelling economy impressively gets us out the door of the house Rachel’s ex-husband wants in a hurry, all while giving us a sufficient rundown of Rachel’s family situation: Her precocious teen son Kyle (Gabriel Bateman) and her mooch brother (Austin P. McKenzie) and her mooch brother’s cute hippie girlfriend (Juliene Joyner, who has nothing to do but inevitably play a corpse) are all living under one roof, adding to the financial burden of needing to keep her flailing salon business afloat while moving her ailing mother to a care facility.
Their battle, particularly in the final act, reminds a lot of the Ellsworth-penned, Wes Craven-directed Red Eye , both films forcing a good woman to outwit, outplay and outlast a madman.
Ellsworth has a solid resume with thrillers like Disturbia, the (pretty good) Last House on the Left remake and Wes Craven’s dynamite Red Eye (which turns 15 tomorrow).
The German-born Borte made a promising feature debut in 2010 with his self-penned dark comedy The Joneses , but he has subsequently specialized in minor genre pieces, while screenwriter Carl Ellsworth's credits have been spotty since he scored early success with the high-concept psycho-thrillers Red Eye (2005) and Disturbia (2007).
The first two names that jumped out at me when looking into the specifics of the new film starring Russell Crowe were writer Carl Ellsworth (the remakes of Red Dawn and The Last House on the Left, as well as films like Disturbia and Red Eye, which are interesting genre works that feel like remakes of better movies) and director Derrick Borte (who made another movie about a downtrodden, middle-aged white guy last year, called American Dreamer, starring Jim Gaffigan).
The script, by Carl Ellsworth (“Disturbia,” “Red Eye”), provides some background details about who the couple was, and what connection they may have to Man.
Simple and direct like the 2005 airplane thriller “ Red Eye ,” “Disturbia” doesn’t pretend to be anything other than what it is, and thank goodness for that.
This would be much more easily accomplished if writers Christopher B. Landon and Carl Ellsworth (who wrote the invigorating "Red Eye," making this miss a huge question mark) invested more into ratcheting up Kale's frustrations and stagnancy.
The script was co-written by Carl Ellsworth, who also co-wrote "Red Eye," a film that had similar third-act problems.
The screenplay, which comes courtesy of Chris Landon (Another Day in Paradise) and Carl Ellsworth (Red Eye), is a half-baked amalgam of back-story silliness, first-act filler and occurrences that could be (charitably) described as paint-by-numbers.