ViewGuide

Created Apr 17, 2016 06:16PM PST • Edited Jun 28, 2020 08:53AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Really Great 4.5

   21st century war gets personal in the heart-pounding Eye in the Sky, one of the best 21st century war movies yet.¹ Helen Mirren’s steely colonel directs a global military response to Islamist terror, adroitly coordinating activity in Kenya, Nevada, Hawaii, Bejing and Singapore from two rooms in England.

   Bureaucracy is rarely so thrilling. Indeed, Churchill must be rolling over in his grave at all the namby-pamby intrusions into legitimate military operations that go on in Western defense operations right now. Nevertheless, Eye in the Sky manages to rigorously examine the cost of 21st century war.

   Heart-Pounding Drone-Warfare Thriller

   Eye in the Sky joins Good Kill as the second great drone movie. Both are not just great, but really great.

   Stellar Cast Stuns

   • Dame Helen Mirren gives us a never-ending day that starts early, then goes completely off hook.
   • Alan Rickman nails his final performance. No actor was ever better at letting words hang in air.
   • Gavin Hood steps in front of the camera to fill a key role, the taciturn Lt. Col. at Creech Air Base.

   American resolution is clear from the top, not surprising when we learn that director Hood plays American.

   Mirren starring, Hood directing and drone-warfare exploding, Eye in the Sky is an instant classic.

   ¹ 21st Century War Movies

4. Acting

   Really Great 4.5

   • British Military Command
     • Helen Mirren as military intelligence Colonel Katherine Powell: Nobody does it better.
     • Carl Beukes as Sergeant Mike Gleeson
   • Whitehall
     • Alan Rickman as Lieutenant General Frank Benson
   • USAF Base in Nevada
     • Gavin Hood as Lt. Colonel Ed Walsh
     • Aaron Paul as 2nd Lieutenant Steve Watts, a USAF drone pilot
     • Kim Engelbrecht as Lucy
   • Pearl Harbor
     • Phoebe Fox as A1C Carrie Gershon, USAF
   • Nairobi
     • Barkhad Abdi as Jama Farah, a Kenyan undercover agent
     • Armaan Haggio as Musa Mo’Allim
     • Aisha Takow as Alia
   • Singapore
     • Jeremy Northam as Brian Woodale
     • Iain Glen as British Foreign Secretary James Willett
   • Washington
     • Richard McCabe as Attorney General George Matherson

5. Male Stars Really Great 4.5

6. Female Stars Really Great 4.5

7. Female Costars Really Great 4.5

8. Male Costars Really Great 4.5

10. Film

    Really Great 4.5

    A well structured film across fully half-a-dozen centers of action, with great use of title cards, Eye in the Sky never loses sight of the fundamentals even as it punches up the tension to 11.

11. Direction Really Great 4.5

    Gavin Hood deserves to direct more big-time movies after Eye in the Sky.

12. Play Really Great 4.5

    Eye in the Sky is Guy Bibbert’s first produced screenplay, yet his TV writing career goes back to 1983.

    Way to hang in there Guy!

13. Music Really Great 4.5

14. Visuals Really Great 4.5

    2 dozen stunts, 3 dozen drivers

15. Content

16. Edge

    Sordid 2.6

17. Sex Innocent 1.0

18. Violence Savage 3.7

19. Rudeness Profane 3.0

21. Reality

    Glib 1.2

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.5

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0