Red Eye 2005

     This movie is the story of a young resourceful heroine, Lisa Reisert.  She is afraid to fly but the terror that awaits her on a night flight to Miami has nothing to do with the fear of flying!!  Lisa is traveling to her home after her grandmother’s funeral.  Upon boarding the plane on a red-eye flight Lisa is trapped sitting next to a creepy villainous, handsome and charming man, Jackson Rippner.  He’s a middle-man in the plot to assassinate a Homeland Security official.  He's also got Lisa’s father pinned down by another killer.  He uses that advantage to coerce Lisa into phoning the luxury resort where she works.  She is instructed to move the target into a specified room number.

     This film focuses on a scary man threatening a young woman.  She fights back with ingenuity and some violence.  Directed by Wes Craven (Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream).  It adopts a basic slasher movie structure with jump scenes, clever framing, ominous lighting, music, and camera angles.  All of these elements can be scary for younger viewers!!  Characters use harsh language, drink, smoke briefly and commit various forms of mayhem.  There is hitting, stabbing with a pen, shooting, slamming with household items, crashing cars and shooting a shoulder-mounted missile.  This is stressful at times but very good.  5* (I really liked this movie)   

85 min, Thriller directed by Wes Craven and written by Carl Ellsworth and Dan Foos with Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy, Brian Cox, Laura Johnson, Max Kasch, Jayma Mays, Angela Paton, Suzie Plakson, Jack Scalia, Terry Press, Robert Pine, Carl Gilliard, Mary Kathleen Gordon, Loren Lester, Philip Pavel.

Note:  Imdb 6.4* out of 10* with 112,851 reviews, Rotten tomatoes 79% with 1932 critics 64% with 436,262 audience scores, reelviews.net 2* out of 4*, Roger Ebert 3*, Metacritic 71 out of 100 with 36 critics 8.7 out of 10 with 495 user scores, letterbox 3.1* out of 5* with 24 fans, Amazon 4.4* out of 5* with 1598 reviews

Special Note:  Both Wes Craven and Carl Ellsworth filmed cameos as airline passengers in the airport terminal.  You can see them about 15 minutes into the film.  Wes Craven couldn't keep a straight face with his script supervisor Sheila Waldron!!  Their cameo wound up on the cutting room floor.  Ellsworth's cameo remains in the final cut.  Three women are sleeping on the terminal seats and they all have their heads resting on the next woman's shoulders.  The last woman is sleeping on a man's shoulder.  This man is Carl Ellsworth wearing a green sweatshirt promoting the band Outkast.

Mistakes:  When Jack sees Lisa in the airport, she is reading a magazine while hiding from the police??  There are two men sitting at a table having drinks but when Jack starts to chase Lisa, the men and the table are both gone?  One of the stickers on the cab's windshield expires 04/02.  The Department of Homeland Security did not exist until March 1, 2003.  Cabs are regulated closely at airports and it seems unlikely for the cab to get by for so long with an expired registration or inspection??  The truck carrying the fish at the beginning of the film has an out-of-date Florida license plate.  It is the type that was issued between 1978 and 1985 and has long been obsolete??