Anime News

'Eagle Eye' Tops DVD Charts 'TDK,' 'Wall-E' Still Doing Well
Date: 1/13/2009
D.J. Caruso?s Eagle Eye was the best-selling DVD of the week ending January 4th according to Nielsen VideoScan. Eagle Eye, which earned $101 million at the box office, replaced The Dark Knight at the top spot on the DVD sales chart. The Dark Knight narrowly beat out Eagle Eye on the Blu-ray sales chart, with Eagle Eye selling 98% of The Dark Knight?s total for the week. Pixar?s Wall-E moved up to #4 and Marvel Studio?s Iron Man at #16 remained in the Top 20 for the 14th straight week.



D.J. Caruso is currently attached to direct the Y: The Last Man, so it is interesting to check out his directing style in Eagle Eye. Eagle Eye is one of those thrillers with a Swiss cheese plot that doesn?t stand close scrutiny, but Caruso makes it all go by so quickly that it doesn?t matter. Shia LeBeouf, who may well end up as Yorick in Y, is both believable and likeable as the protagonist of Eagle Eye and Michelle Monaghan is a fine foil in this wild chase film that hearkens back to Hitchcock classics like The 39 Steps, Saboteur, and North by Northwest.



Eagle Eye looks especially good on the Paramount/Dreamworks Blu-ray disk, which contains a wealth of extras including deleted scenes and a number of featurettes on the making of the film, the locations used in the film, and tracking by cell phones.



While Eagle Eye with its hot young stars and its trendy, constantly moving (and sometimes jerky) camerawork has been a big hit with younger audiences, Paramount released two other films on DVD during the same week that are aimed at older audiences, Ghost Town and The Duchess. Ghost Town is a smart romantic comedy starring a trio of actors of a certain age, Ricky Gervais, Greg Kinnear, and Tea Leoni. Slickly directed by David Koepp, Ghost Town is a fantasy reminiscent of the spirit-infused comedies of the 1930s and 1940s like Topper and Heaven Can Wait. New York City has rarely looked better than it does in this film (especially in the Blu-ray version) and the DVD contains excellent commentaries, and an intriguing feature on the ?ghostly? effects.



Thanks to the popularity gained from her performances in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, one might think that Keira Knightley, the star of The Duchess, would be able to attract youthful viewers to the film, but this lavish screen biography of Georgiana Spencer, the Duchess of Devonshire is too much the prestige production to connect with youthful audiences in spite of the interesting parallels between the Duchess and her descendant Princess Di (Diana Spencer). It is fitting that one of the main features on this DVD is devoted to the costuming, which is truly spectacular as is the film?s evocation of late 18th Century England. Director Saul Dibb provides stunning visuals all around?this is truly a movie for anyone who likes ?eye candy? (again this is most evident on the Blu-ray version), and Rachel Portman?s score is the perfect counterpoint to the film?s rich visual texture. The Duchess is Masterpiece Theater on steroids, and should find a devoted audience among older viewers and those who like well-crafted period movies.
Source: ICv2