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Movies & TV

Eye In The Sky

EYE IN THE SKY

GALA D: Gavin Hood. UK. 102 min. Sep 11, 6:30 pm Roy Thomson Hall Sep 12, 11:15 am Isabel Bader. Rating: NNN


This military thriller occasionally grinds to a halt to host a Reddit-like debate on drones. Surprisingly, it still works and manages to present valid, even-keeled positions, too. No trolling necessary.

Helen Mirren and Alan Rickman play British commanders remotely coordinating a tactical team in Somalia on a mission to capture terrorists, while a Nevada-based drone pilot (Aaron Paul) stands by and politicians across the globe loom over everyone.

The suspects are (conveniently) spotted with suicide vests, while an innocent girl near the site would become a casualty of the drone attack.

The strike waits as everyone chimes in on an exhaustive and often comical argument about the optics involved in killing one child to prospectively save 80 people. The film optimistically insists that military types put a lot of thought into an imminent high-stakes operation.

Director Hood manages to pull an intense nail-biter out of all the messy backroom theatrics. He excels in the on-the-ground action, which features a stellar Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips) as a Somali operative who squirrels around the kill zone to discreetly get the little girl out of harm’s way.

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