A month too late to qualify as sleazy summer fun, Eagle Eye, the latest collaboration between director D.J. Caruso and actor Shia LaBeouf, feels out of place with its over-the-top action sequences and ridiculous premise during the fall, when blockbusters have gone out of style and filmmakers start searching for the Oscar gold.

Eagle Eye centers on Jerry Shaw (LaBeouf) — a young Copy Cabana employee living in the shadow of his recently deceased twin — and a single mom, Rachel Holloman (Michelle Monaghan). Their mundane lives veer off track as Jerry finds his apartment filled with ammonium nitrate and the FBI banging on his door while Rachel’s son is unknowingly held captive on a train speeding towards D.C. Their only instructions, coming from a female voice on the other end of a cell phone, are to meet up, follow all further orders and never try to run.

Chasing them is the FBI, headed by Agent Morgan (Billy Bob Thornton). A conspiracy theory quickly boils linking Jerry, his twin Ethan and Rachel to a terrorist cell trying to take out the president. The movie fumbles about as it tries to make shocking connections that only end up causing the viewer to worry about the FBI’s lack of insight. Yet the intelligence agents are not entirely to blame for their repeated failures. Some of the techniques Jerry and Rachel must employ to escape arrest cross the line of believability into the outrageous and take away any lingering feeling of viewer involvement in the movie.

Fortunately, none of the actors take themselves too seriously in their roles. LaBeouf is entertaining and seems to have found his niche as the everyday action hero after starring in both Transformers and the latest Indiana Jones movie. His scruffy facial hair isn’t quite enough to portray him as old enough for any believable chemistry with Monaghan. For her part, she seems overshadowed by the movie, not nearly enough of a presence to shoulder the absurdity around her. Billy Bob shows promise in his early scenes, but quickly fades to the point where he is just barking his lines. Mid-movie, it appears that he gives up trying.

Eagle Eye lacks originality and plays like a montage of previous action movies. Throw in the obligatory car chases, a fight scene on a moving object and tense lines delivered through clenched teeth and you have the bulk of the movie. These opening scenes are weakly woven together by a back story that deals with violence in Iraq and the corruption of the U.S. government. Here, the movie tries too hard to drive home a point, and voiceovers of the Declaration of Independence seem more laughable than profoundly patriotic.

We are beat over the head with the “insightful” connection between Big Brother and recent laws, such as the Patriot Act. News reports playing in the background inform unconcerned citizens that the government is able to use the microphones in their cell phones to track conversations, while posters in the background carry messages like “We See” and “Surveillance” along with giant eyes overlooking the pedestrians. This point is so overdone that when the big discovery of the mastermind finally occurs, it elicits little more than a feigned nod of interest. However, the film does showcase just how much electronics run our lives. We don’t need the government activating our microphones — our call logs, iTunes playlists and online purchases say enough.

Eagle Eye consists of scenes that we have seen before, a premise that we have been hearing about since 1984 and the man-versus-machine battle that has been fought year after year. Big Brother may be watching, but if he is smart, he won’t be watching this movie.