Our last movie of this Memorial Day Weekend is "Angel Eyes" with Jennifer Lopez and James Caviezel. Watching the previews, I thought this was a spooky thriller, some sort of stalker movie with Caviezel's character as a deranged killer going after Lopez's character. Hence I wasn't all that keen to watch this movie, but there aren't that many movies playing around where I live. Apparently the two theatres near me decided to double up on the really popular movies, with Brenden showing 6 movies on 14 screens (and two of the movies only had two showings each on Monday) and Century showing three movies on five screens.

Surprisingly though, this is a relationship movie. Almost a romantic movie, but not really. We start out on a dark or rainy night (either bad editting or purposefully sureal), Officer Sharon Pogue (Lopez) of the Chicago Police Department is at the scene of a fatal car accident. We have a victim's-eye- view of Sharon as she desperately tries to keep a victim focused, awake and alive until medical help arrives ("Look at me! Keep focused on me! Don't you dare leave me!").

One year later, life goes on. Sharon's parents, Carl (Victor Argo) and Josephine (Sonia Braga, wow it's been a long time since she was known as "the Brazilian Bombshell"), are going to renew their wedding vows. Mom wants Sharon there, but what about dad? Apparently Sharon and her dad have a rather bad relationship. It seems like some time ago (10 years?) Sharon arrested her abusive dad one day after he was beating up on her mom. Sharon also has a brother Larry (Jeremy Sisto) who is turning out like his father. They're not the Huxtables.

Enter the mysterious Catch (Caviezel), who always seems to wear this long overcoat and sports a three-day-old stubble. Catch is watching Sharon at a coffee shop hanging out with her work buddies, when a not-so-random drive-by shatters the tranquil scene. The two gangsters immediately crash into another car as they try to make their getaway, so they hop out of their car and the chase is on. Sharon and her partner sprint after the two. One is caught by her partner, leaving Sharon alone in pursuit of the other perp, who loses him around the bend of some condemned building.

Suddenly the kid jumps Sharon, knocking her to the ground, making her drop her sidearm. He picks it up and shoots her point blank two times (but, we know she wears a bullet-proof vest, although it's got to hurt). Before he can shoot her in the head, Catch tackles the kid and saves her life. The near-death experience leaves Sharon out of sorts, perhaps enough to ignore all the warning signs that Catch throws out during the movie, which everyone else sees but she ignores.

In gratitude she invites him for a drink and eventually they get to talking. Yup, Sharon has a pretty sad life. Trouble with her immediate family, not really all that friendly at work, and her apartment's a mess. But that's better than Catch, who apparently doesn't have a real name, talks slowly and haltingly, and has no furniture in his apartment. If that's not a perfect match I don't know what is.

But they do start to develop a relationship. Catch makes Sharon feel like a woman, and the enigma that he is captures her inquisitive nature. So what's the deal with Catch, and who will be the next victim? And what's up with that evil dog? All will be answered by the end of the movie.

"Angel Eyes" is the weakest of the four movies I saw this weekend. I think it tries to make it more spooky than it should be in the beginning, to make it more of a surprise. But that leads to too many unexplained things happening because they're not shown on screen. That makes the first half of the movie a bit jumpy, which is wasted since this isn't a thriller. Basically, a movie with a good idea but poor marketing and execution.

As for the acting, it's ok. Nobody really stands out among the supporting cast. Jennifer Lopez does an ok job. She doesn't really play the tough cop well, which the character is supposed to be apparently. James Caviezel is really good in this movie, even though it's mostly his character acting spooky rather than doing a lot of dialogue. I guess my recommendation is wait until you can rent it.