by SARAH ROWLAND

Watching Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy play cat and mouse together is a visually stimulating spectacle. McAdams, simply because she's the new Neve Campbell (both Ontarians cracked the U.S. film industry at a young age, both possess that accessible beauty that makes it easy to play girl-next-door roles, both are favourites of Wes Craven), and Murphy because his Irish blues are set far enough apart that it requires minimal effort on his part to convey his sinister side. You know he's the villain before he opens his mouth (see Batman Begins). But watching this year's good-looking bad guy prey on this summer's it girl (see Wedding Crashers) isn't enough to uphold Craven's thriller in the sky, Red Eye.

Lisa (McAdams) is a hotel manager flying back from her grandmother's funeral. While waiting for her delayed flight, she starts flirting with Jackson (Murphy) in the airport lounge. It turns out they're sitting next to each other on the flight. When Lisa discovers this, she crinkles her nose and furrows her brow in that wow-what-a-curious-coincidence way that Campbell perfected in Party of Five. Oh, but it's no coincidence. Jackson goes on to explain the ridiculously elaborate reason behind his stalking her. The deal is, Lisa must call her hotel and move one of her high-powered guests to another room because this will give some nameless swarthy-looking hitmen waiting on the shores of the resort easier access. This is odd, considering their plans to kill said hotel guest include obliterating a whole floor of the five-star resort - not an MO that requires a pinpoint target.

Anyway, in exchange for these last-minute check-in plans, Lisa's dad gets to live. Paps, meanwhile, is totally oblivious to the fact there's a butcher-for-hire waiting outside his house. One call from Jackson and he'll be carved up like a slaughterhouse pig.

Surely, there must be easier ways to assassinate someone - diplomat or not - what with all the travel arrangements and manpower required to pull off this stunt. Whatever happened to just dressing up like room service and poisoning the intended victim? Or, more to the point, whatever happened to Craven finding stronger material to work with? His usual campy wit is all but gone here, a disturbing trend he started with this year's werewolf wash-out Cursed. But what's more disappointing is Red Eye just isn't that scary. And Lisa's feeble attempts to pull a fast one on Jackson feel like boring filler to elongate their stay on the plane.

Having said that, this is not total air disaster, Craven saves his few thrills for the last few scenes when the plane lands and Lisa decides she's not going to be a victim anymore. Lucky for her and bored moviegoers, her dad has a pretty big house with plenty of nooks and crannies for our barefooted heroine to hide in. In keeping with horror traditions, the chase takes up most of the third act and is never over when you think it is. Still, it's the only time this mile-high dud really takes off.

Red Eye opens Friday, Aug. 19

>> Movie Listings