Eagle Eye is a pretty entertaining spy thriller. Of course, I think Shia LaBeouf ("Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull") rocks. I believed his ordinary man in extraordinary situation. The action starts off pretty fast and then doesn't let up until the end. Could I see where it was going after about half an hour? Yes. Did I still want to know how it got there? Yes. So, a fun two hour diversion. Just beware, Billy Bob Thorton ("Mr. Woodcock") is looking more and more like a living skeleton. Creepy.
A Sound of Thunder has a really interesting premise. In the future, man has created a machine that allows us to jump back in time. Only Ben Kingsley ("The Love Guru") is using it to take wealthy men back to hunt dinosaurs. And, of course, one tiny thing goes wrong and Ed Burns ("27 Dresses") has to scramble to save life as we know it. The CG is bad. I mean really bad. And the dialogue is often silly. However, I found myself entertained when it popped up on the Sci-Fi Channel.
Blindness should have been a really good movie, and elements of the good were there. But, somehow, and I haven't been able to put my finger on it exactly, it just didn't work. The story follows a group of people affected by a sudden plague of blindness. Only Julianne Moore ("I'm Not There") retains her sight, and she becomes the eyes for this group after they ar quarantined in an old hospital. Of course, all manner of atrocities ensue. It's a bleak story. the cinematography reflects this. And the film follows the book very faithfully, which is usually a plus. I don't even know exactly what to complain about. I don't usually mind depressing stories or gross and despicable things on screen. But this film just did not work for me, and I can't recommend it.
Death Row a.k.a. Haunted Prison, is a Sci-Fi Channel Original, and it's not one of the better offerings. Jake Busey ("Time Bomb"), yes, you read it right, stars as the leader of a group of thieves who take refuge in an abandoned prison as they try to escape police. Also in the prison is a group of filmmakers who are shooting a documentary about the building. But the prison has it's own plan, and the groups are thrown together as members are mysteriously killed off by the ghosts of inmates. The acting is atrocious, the dialogue not much better, but something kept me watching. Maybe the gore?
Reincarnation is one of the After Dark horror films, which, I'm discovering, are really hit or miss. This is one of the hits. A Japanese filmmakers is doing a movie about a seemingly random brutal slaying in a hotel. As he recreates the set, the people drawn to the project begin to have strange dreams and visions. Sometimes the movie is confusing, but always creepy, and the end is very satisfying. Check this one out.