Wes Craven's "Red Eye"

Nothing quite like finding a movie that vastly exceeds your expectations. Such was my experience with Wes Craven's "Red Eye." I knew it would be at least okay, because the trailer looked quite good. Now that I've seen it, I call it excellent.

Wes Craven? Yeah, Mr. Nightmare on Elm Street himself. Script by first time writer Carl Ellsworth. It is one of the tightest, most cleverly written action thrillers I've ever seen. It's quite short, only 1:20, but it doesn't make one false step from beginning to end. And in the first 2 minutes, it presents so many plot points for the audience to absorb, that I had to stop the movie and just go... "Whoa..." for a few seconds. (I'm sure there were those who urged Mr. Craven to pad it out, to stretch the scenes, or add more backstory, at least to get it over 90 minutes. He didn't. He crushed the edit down as tight as it can go, and the film just flies. This was the right choice.)

It's as good a movie in this genre as Die Hard. Now, to qualify that a bit, Red Eye is a small movie. It has none of the Summer Blockbuster, James Bond-like scale of Die Hard. The entire 2nd act takes place on a plane. But it is just as tight, just as intelligent a film as that 1988 classic. Very interesting, really, to see how a sharp director can create a first rate action thriller on a very small budget. There are only 3 major characters in this whole movie.

If you enjoy this sort of film, by all means check this one out. Really well done.