Red Eye

Director Wes Craven gets a little bit of his credibility back after Cursed, his crappy werewolf movie, with this airplane/hostage thriller. A young hotel executive (the impossibly great Rachel McAdams) sits next to a charming man on a plane (Cillian Murphy) and the two seem destined for each other. Then, something very, very bad starts to happen. Craven, who usually screws around with horror movies, gets a chance in a new genre and scores a relative success. McAdams takes what could’ve been a standard thriller role and makes it much more, while Murphy proves himself a decent baddie. The film doesn’t bring anything all that new to the hostage thriller, but it does have a great time with the standard tricks. The switch in tone is a fine surprise, and while Craven does nicely with the scary stuff, the man could have a future in sweet romantic comedies when considering this film’s first act. Brian Cox is good in a small supporting role.