Red Eye (2005, Wes Craven)

Not the Hitchcockian throwback everyone seemed to be claiming at the time (if it were up to Hitch, he'd have never left the plane), but a reasonably entertaining and fast-paced (76 minutes!) thriller. "Next Julia Roberts"-if-she-wants-it Rachel McAdams is unsurprisingly good (she projects such a vulnerability, even when she has the upper hand) and while I'm still not completely sold on Cillian Murphy (he's at his best when the role takes advantage of his otherworldly, amphibian face, like Batman Begins and Breakfast on Pluto), his performance in the key scene (when he reveals his plan to McAdams) is a wonderful bit of acting, blurring the line between charm and menace. Still, I'd prefer a version that had, say, George Clooney, doing his best Cary Grant in Suspicion. Also, while ifs and buts are candy and nuts, I'd prefer a version that had a real third act (fifth-rate cat and mouse doesn't cut it), a version that didn't have a villainous plan that suggests the terrorists have been playing too many videogames (A rocket launcher aimed at a hotel room? Didn't I play that in GTA: Vice City?), and most importantly, a version that took the effort to set up long-term tensions on the plane-- every time McAdams comes up with a plan to foil Murphy, it's immediately defused a few minutes later, giving the film a turbulent, herky-jerky rhythm. Hitch would've sailed above that, as well.