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4 stars****

On the blurb it says produced by Steven Speilberg, so you know it’s going to be a big budget movie. This is later proved with the number of explosions, car chases and general use of a small county’s GDP with elaborate stunt work.

Dan McDermott wrote the original screenplay, but John Glenn, Travis Wright and Hillary Seitz were brought in to complete it for the final movie version. That makes you think that it took a lot of tweaking to get it right, but did they?

It was one of the fastest films I’ve seen in a long time. So much so, that I can’t remember a faster paced film. The action never lets up, hitting you square on the jaw non stop. The two hours slip by as you’re being entertained and certainly not bored.

There’s going to be a however, however. Movies must be believable, even when the unbelievable becomes plausible by great screenplay writing. The tracking by the master computer was just one processor too clever. We believed that they could track the star’s mobile telephones, but we didn’t believe it when they called the guy asleep on the next bench.

The movie’s based upon the fear that we can all be watched and controlled 24/7 by super computers aided by close circuit television with something more powerful than Window’s Vista.

The leads, Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan certainly go through full character arcs, but at least we’re spared them getting married and having 2.4 children at the end.

This is definitely a big screen movie; it’ll be lost on your home 47 inch plasma or LCD. The stunt work is amazing; the explosions masterful. Yes, we know where the money went.

As of today, the film’s budget of $80 million has been matched by taking $166 million at the box office, so it may not be far away from breaking even.

So the final screenplay was excellent, but which of the four if not all, should we congratulate?

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