Wes Craven's latest movie after the lacklustre CURSED is a biting thriller that is definitely the director's best since SCREAM – and better than a lot of his films made before SCREAM, too. It follows the recent convention of setting thrillers in just one location – COLLATERAL's taxi cab, PHONE BOOTH's well, phone booth. RED EYE is a film set almost entirely on a plane, but that doesn't mean we're in for some sub-PASSENGER 57 theatrics; instead, this is a surprisingly mature and well-plotted film which makes maximum usage out of its minimal sets and has a snappy script to boot. Craven is happy to leave the bloodshed and supernatural killers behind to make a more realistic kind of film that only descends into cheese in the last twenty minutes or so, when it becomes an amusing, HALLOWEEN-style stalk-and-slash game between heroine and antagonist.

I'd wanted to see RED EYE ever since I watched the trailer and noted that it starred the mesmeric Cillian Murphy, who was so good as the Scarecrow in BATMAN BEGINS. I wasn't disappointed – Murphy is fantastic. I remember watching 28 DAYS LATER and not thinking much of him, but a couple of years later and he's emerged as one of the freshest young talents in Hollywood. Here, he plays it restrained throughout, chilling the viewer with his dead-eye stares; there's definitely something about his eyes which sends a real chill down your spine. As is often the case with these kinds of films, I felt for Murphy; he predictably takes a real beating towards the end of the movie which kinds of ruins the effect by destroying Murphy's menace.

Rachel McAdams is the young, beautiful and resourceful heroine, and it's difficult to fault her too. Brian Cox is on the sidelines as her dad, but he has little or nothing to work with. A lot of the supporting actors are weak – especially McAdams' buddy Cynthia, who seems to think she's in some high-school comedy – but this doesn't detract from the excellent central pairing. Craven's work is good, too, with great photography and a wonderfully executed set-piece in a high-rise hotel. Although the violence is restrained for a 12A certificate, it's a surprisingly gruelling film with some really shocking moments – the pen incident being the prime contender here, definitely the best bit of the film and something you never saw coming. For fans who enjoy films which exploit the resourcefulness of the human being – whether it be PHONE BOOTH or even DIE HARD – RED EYE will be something of a pleasure. It's a simple-enough thriller with enough bite and gusto in the performances to make it a top-notch viewing experience.

Things are set up for problems. You've got the guy with the deep blue eyes who is setting up a young woman. He needs her to make a call to a hotel so he can attack a Homeland Security guy and his family. We're never told much about motive. Her father is a hostage at a distance because he supposedly will be killed if she doesn't comply. Anyway, she does what she can. It's made obvious that she's pretty athletic and can fend for herself pretty well. Her physicality comes to the fore in the last part of the movie. It has the usual character who has enough stamina to make it all the way through busy traffic with a pen hole in his windpipe, and still be pretty formidable. The name Jackson Rippner is so silly, I won't say any more. That guy has no connection with this and other than being cute, shows how shallow the filmmakers are here. The scenes on the plane are pretty good, but they are also full of coincidences and unbelievable events. At some point the threat gets old. My question is, how can all this go on without someone picking up on the conversation. Oh, well.

Lisa Reisert (Rachel McAdams) is a hotel manager on a late night plane back to Miami. She keeps running into Jackson Rippner (Cillian Murphy). He ends up sitting next to her on the plane. She strikes up a conversation with him, but he threatens to have her father killed if she doesn't change the room reservation of an important visitor.

This is a nice tight little thriller as long as they're on the plane. The plane confines her, and heightens the tension. It works quite well. It needs to stay on the plane. With a few changes, the whole movie could have been great if they kept the movie all in the air.

Once they leave the plane, the movie loses so much tension. It was also illogical that she couldn't ask people for a phone. It could have ended with a couple of calls. The whole action final third is unnecessary and unreasonable.