Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy meet cute at the airport before their flight, but there's no romance in Wes Craven's new film. And a good thing too since Craven delivers a straightforward, compact thriller with no distractions. Murphy's charmer-turned-killer holds McAdams hostage onboard a night flight while blackmailing her into assisting with a political assassination. The plane proves to be a good narrative device: Naturally there's no escape, but then, who knew that all those normally awful fellow passengers might prove so useful? Craven also has fun exploiting the real-life nightmare that are today's overcrowded, over-policed airports and planes. The two leads perform well; with his ice-cold blue eyes and razor-sharp cheekbones, Murphy is the new go-to baddie. Keeping it relatively bloodless, Craven tweaks the genre just enough to be entertaining while maintaining a fidelity to his stripped-down, B-movie roots. (AH) 
RED EYE
