-Sabotaging Your Best Friend’s Wedding (Bride Wars)
-Getting Brolic Over Reese Witherspoon (This Means War)
-Modern Warfare (The Hurt Locker, Lone Survivor)

A British military operation to take out a terrorist cell in East Africa plays out in real time over the course of 100 minutes with the help of a U.S. drone piloted from Las Vegas, Nevada.  While it is a relatively new military tactic, there are several instances of drone command scenes on the screen that come to mind (most notably in episodes of Homeland), but it’s hard to recall an entire drone-centric movie like Eye In The Sky.  I found the first 45 minutes or so suspenseful, especially the few scenes that actually take place on the ground.  But then I realized where this movie was headed, which was another 55 minutes of Helen Mirren, Alan Rickman (RIP), and Aunt Jackie’s boyfriend from Roseanne debating whether Aaron Paul should pull a trigger or not.

Eye in the Sky aims to grant viewers access to all the conversations and chains of command that go into carrying out a time-sensitive drone strike.  It highlights the intertwining rules involved, many of which come into direct conflict with each other legally, politically, or ethically.  I do think it’s a relevant, timely story that’s well worth telling, but perhaps they maybe should have chosen a different venue.  For instance, this would have made a very compelling episode of The West Wing. – Sidenote:  Of all the garbage on broadcast TV, why can’t NBC just reboot West Wing?  Emilio Estevez takes over a POTUS role that his old man Martin Sheen once commanded.  Who says no?  Certainly not Emilio.

Now, Eye in the Sky scored a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes so I’m probably in the minority on the low level of enthusiasm.  I just found it’s message to be heavy-handed with one too many “shame on you’s,” and less effective as the runtime was drawn out.  We get it, war is murky and like the chicken or the egg sometimes there’s no right answer, but is Aaron Paul really gonna go this entire movie without slipping in his Breaking Bad trademark?  Tier 6  Update: On second thought, you can pass on this.