On DVD: Eagle Eye Worth Eyeing For The Extras

It's not the making-ofs or the interviews that make this actioner worthy a second time. It's the hilarious gag reel.
'Eagle Eye' on DVD
'Eagle Eye' on DVD - DreamWorks
C. Robert Cargill

Don't you hate it when someone ruins a perfectly good movie for you? It happened to me earlier this year after enjoying the popcorn-chomping fun of the new Shia LaBeouf actioner, Eagle Eye. It's a hell of a fun film with a killer idea -- one I dare not spoil here in case you haven't seen it.

But, as it turns out, it's a once-through movie, one of those films that is really enjoyable when you don't know what's going on but kind of falls apart a bit when you do. The movie is still good the second time around, but after first watching it and talking about the fun I had, fellow film critic and CHUD persona Devin Faraci turned to me and said, "Really? You liked that?" Yeah, I did. Then he asked me about one scene in particular in which wires snap and swing at our heroes. "And how did [our villain] manage that? Magic?" Oh. Crap.

From that moment on it's been hard to feel the love for the film that I originally did. Normally, I would have caught something like that, but the way Devin framed it -- the fact that there wasn't a logical answer in the world to his question -- well, it caused the movie to lose a little luster.

Which is why I'm glad they sent me the DVD. Because now I have something to love about it again: The extras!!!

Most of the DVD is what you would expect. There are some deleted scenes, one of which (a LeBeouf monologue) is painfully good -- one of those moments that defines his character and should have been in the film. Sadly, the filmmakers probably thought it was a little too heavy. There are a couple making-of segments that are very fast paced and easy to sit through -- lots of info coming at you, nothing too banal.

There's a cool 10-minute short ("Is My Cell Phone Spying On Me?") which puts the filmmakers and security experts to the task of discussing life in the scary information age/Big Brother world we live in. It's an interesting piece, especially when they talk about the two major ways your cell phone can be used to spy on you. Noticeably absent was discussion about the third way, which supposedly allows remote activation of your microphone so you can listen to conversations around you. And that's nothing compared to what Batman can apparently do...

Then there's an interesting 10-minute interview/back-and-forth between director DJ Caruso (who is an incredible guy, by the way) with his mentor and previous employer John Badham who directed the computer classic WarGames. This interesting discussion offers a fascinating look into a student-teacher relationship, and is worth checking out if you at all enjoy Caruso's work.

Finally, there is a gag reel to end all gag reels. What begins as your standard stuff soon evolves into a full-blown competition between Billy Bob Thornton and Rosario Dawson to see who can bust the other up first by being the most offensive. By the time Thornton got to "and I've got a sore the size of a quarter in my mouth to prove it," I was howling and hitting the pause button every few seconds to recover before starting again. I had to watch the whole exchange three times just to hear it all over my own laughter. I have never seen a gag reel this funny, and it made the movie for me. Again.

Eagle Eye is available now from Dreamworks Home Entertainment.

Keywords: eagle eyeshia labeoufdvd

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