SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Shia LaBeouf & Michelle Monaghan in "Eagle Eye"

The movie begins with the armed forces getting a lead on a suspected terrorist by using a remote control aircraft that’s equipped with video camera. However, the system is not able to get a clear shot out of the man and recommends the mission to be aborted. The Secretary of Defense (Michael Chiklis) agrees with the recommendation as he feels it’s too risky, but the President of the United States orders the mission to be executed. It turns out that those who were killed are civilians and the terrorists retaliate by bombing the U.S. Embassies in several locations around the world.

Jerry Shaw (Shia LaBeouf) is a slacker who works at Copy Cabana, a photocopier store. He needs to win some poker money from his loser friends in order to settle the rental of his apartment. Misfortune hits him when Jerry finds out that his brother, Ethan has died in a road accident.

Fortune comes knocking when Jerry finds USD $750,000 in his bank account. When he returns home, he finds his apartment is filled with weapons, explosives and documents. He receives a mysterious phone call from an unknown woman who warns him that the FBI are about to arrest him in thirty seconds and he has no choice but to escape. Jerry’s refusal to believe the woman’s voice gets him caught by the FBI, led by Thomas Morgan (Billy Bob Thornton) and Air Force Office of Special Investigations Special Agent Zoe Perez (Rosario Dawson).

The unknown woman arranges Jerry’s escape and make him join single mother Rachel Holloman (Michelle Monaghan) into a black Porsche Cayenne. Holloman is already seated in the car as she was earlier forced by the unknown woman to get into the car by threatening to kill her son, Sam a trumpet player on his way to Washington, D.C. for a band recital.

Agent Perez figures out that Ethan was a technician and he has locked down ARIA from carrying out her plan. However, ARIA is the one who has eliminated Ethan and Ethan didn’t die from a road accident.

Jerry is forced to impersonate Ethan in order to override the code that has earlier locked down the computer. When ARIA has cleared the lock down and is able to resume Operation Guillotine, she instructs Rachel to kill Jerry so he won’t be able to lock the computer down again. Rachel fails to kill Jerry as she is not able to overcome her conscience despite the threat by ARIA to kill Sam. Jerry and Rachel part ways but Jerry is caught up by Agent Morgan. They both learn that ARIA has a list of whom she will kill in order to eliminate public threat including the President of the United States. However, ARIA sends a Predator B UCAV to destroy Jerry. Agent Morgan sacrifices himself to destroy the aircraft in order to save Jerry.

Rachel is given a necklace fitted with the explosive crystal by The Secretary of Defense and sent to watch the President’s speech. Sam’s class, whose recital has been moved from the Kennedy Center to the Capitol for the President’s State of the Union Address, starts to play. The trigger that will set off the explosive necklace is set to activate when Sam plays a high F on his trumpet. Jerry fires a few shot into the air, halting the performance and emptying the room, but provokes a Secret Service agent to shoot him.

Jerry who survives the gunshot, receives the Congressional Gold Medal for his bravery. The movie ends with Jerry attending Sam’s birthday party.

Overall, it is a spectacular movie with brilliant plots and engrossing moments. Shia LeBouef does not disappoint with his solid performance throughout the film. Eagle Eye is definitely worth watching.

My ratings: 7 out of 10.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Tom Bailey (Patrick Dempsey) and Hannah (Michelle Monaghan) look lovable in Made of Honor

Tom and Hannah met in a costume party when he accidentally slipped in her bed thinking it was her roommate, "Monica". She was honest and feisty when he asked her about what she thinks about him which nonetheless has made Tom pretty impressed by it.

Ten years later, Tom (Patrick Dempsey) becomes successful in life and quite loaded due to his invention of the “coffee collar” of which the idea has popped up when he met Hannah a decade ago. Tom is a playboy who sleeps with different girl every day of the week and occassionally plays basketball with his guy friends. His best friend is no other than Hannah (Michelle Monaghan). They always date on Sunday including going to antique stores together and guessing each other desserts at a well-known bakery.

It seems that Tom takes Hannah for granted until she goes to Scotland on an acquisition trip for her museum and returns with a wealthy Scottish, Colin McMurray (Kevin McKidd). Hannah asks Tom to be her "maid" of honor since he is her best friend and he tells her he’ll think about it until his guy friends convince him to agree in order to win her back. Hannah tells Tom that she is going to move to Scotland to be with Colin and never coming back to New York City. While in Scotland, Tom plans to tell Hannah he loves her. During Hannah’s bachelorette party, they share a passionate kiss, before Hannah gets whisked off by her bridesmaids. That night, Hannah goes up to Tom’s room to talk to him.

But before she arrives, Hannah’s cousin, Melissa (Busy Phillips) who Tom ditched, comes into Tom’s room and attempts to seduce him after having too much whiskey. Hannah walks into the room only to find Melissa is on top of Tom. Tom and Hannah ends up having an argument and Tom leaves for home. But on his way, he decides to rush back to stop the wedding when he bumps into a dog of whom he could easily say "I love you" to but not to a human — which reminds him of the things Hannah once told him. Tom borrows a horse in exchange for part of his coffee collar royalties and manages to make it to the chapel just in time but he crashes onto the parlour floor. When he wakes up, Hannah and Tom both kiss. Hannah finally decides to cancel the marriage and marry Tom back in New York City.

Well, it may be another romantic comedy, but this film sure rocks. Lighthearted, funny and engaging to watch.

My ratings: 7 out of 10.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Morgan Freeman, Michelle Monaghan and Casey Affleck in "Gone Baby Gone"

When a 4-year-old Amanda goes missing in Boston, the case attracts widespread media attention. Private investigator Kenzie (Casey Affleck) with his partner and girlfriend Angie (Michelle Monaghan) are hired by the child’s aunt, Beatrice ‘Bea’ McCready (Amy Madigan) to find her. Initially, they do not want to take up the case due to the little experience they have with this type of case and the dangers involved. But, after seeing Amanda’s mother, Helene McCready (Amy Ryan), a drug addict who cares very little about her own daughter, Kenzie and Angie decides to open an investigation that will probably risk everything including their lives. Kenzie and Angie bump into Capt. Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman) while investigating the case. Doyle reveals that his 12-year-old daughter was abducted and killed as the reason he opens up the police’s missing children’s unit. Kenzie and Angie also meet up with Det. Nick Poole (John Ashton) and Det. Remy Bressant (Ed Harris), the detectives investigating the case.

Later on, Kenzie and Angie have discovered that Amanda’s mother, Helene, and her boyfriend, “Skinny Ray”, had stolen $130,000 from a local drug lord named Cheese (Edi Gathegi). Helene reveals the location of the money after Ray is murdered by Cheese. Nick and Remy arrange to trade the money with Cheese for Amanda at a nearby quarry in Quincy. While at the quarry, shots are fired, Cheese ends up dead and it is believed Amanda drowned. Captain Doyle takes full responsibility for the detectives’ actions and goes into early retirement.

A seven-year-old boy is abducted a couple months after Amanda’s death. Kenzie receives information from his buddy, Bubba Rogowski (Slaine) on the whereabouts of a known pedophile, Corwin Earle (Matthew Maher) and his accomplices of two drug addicts in Everett. They go to the house posing as drug dealers in order to find evidence of the presence of Corwin. Once they have, they flee and Kenzie later returns to the house with Nick and Remy. A shoot-out occurs and Nick is shot in the neck while Kenzie daringly enters the house and find one of the accomplices is dead. When ther other accomplice gives him a chase with a shotgun, Kenzie is forced to retreat into the pedophile’s room. Corwin is seen sitting on the floor and telling Kenzie that it was an accident before Kenzie shoots Corwin in the back of his head after he finds the boy’s dead body.

Nick later dies in a hospital. At Nick’s funeral, Kenzie recognizes a police officer Devin (Michael K. Williams) and questions him. Devin tells Kenzie to buy him lunch as a return. Devin tells Kenzie that Remy had been asking about the stolen money before Cheese knew it was missing. Kenzie questions Amanda’s uncle, Lionel (Titus Welliver), and finally discovers that Lionel and Remy have conspired in a fake kidnapping in order to take the money for themselves and to punish Amanda’s mother for her poor parenting.

Lionel speaks to Kenzie in a local bar, telling him that Amanda’s death was an accident and that the phony trade was arranged with the help of the drug lord’s associate. Remy enters the bar and stages a robbery while wearing a latex mask and holding a shotgun in order to kill Lionel before he can confess. Despite the latex mask, Lionel and Kenzie know it was Remy through his blue eyes. Lionel then tells Remy what he has already told Kenzie while Kenzie keeps on shouting “Amanda McCready was taken by Remy Bressant!” daringly. Remy tries to back away, but not before the barkeeper shoots Remy twice in the chest. Remy flees and is pursued by Kenzie to the rooftop of a nearby building. Kenzie asks Remy why he did it. Remy only replies that he loves kids before he dies.

Kenzie is later questioned about Remy’s death only to discover that an earlier call transcript which led to the quarry meeting was forged — this simply means Doyle was also involved in setting up the exchange. He is not satisfied with what he knows about Amanda’s abduction and drives with Angie to Captain Doyle’s home. He discovers Amanda (Madeline O’Brien) is alive and living with Doyle and his wife. Kenzie threatens to call the authorities but Doyle attempts to convince him that Amanda is better off living with them than with her drug-addict mother who couldn’t care less. Kenzie departs to discuss the choice with Angie, who says she will leave him if he calls the police. The police arrive and Doyle is arrested. Amanda is reunited with her mother, but Kenzie and Angie break up. Kenzie later visits Amanda and her mother, Helene, who is just about to leave on a date. He volunteers to watch over Amanda while she is out and they sit on a couch to watch television.

Overall, Ben Affleck’s directional debut is better than expected despite the many twists in the film, the truth in the end is just sad and depressing.

My ratings: 8 out of 10.

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