Disturbia

Stupid love story destroyed this movie. This movie could have been a hundred times darker without the stupid teeny bopper lust fest. Give my money back and I'll stop complaining. And for god's sake where have all the good actors gone??? I mean this movie was done after the father/son crash. That was by far the most exciting part and I could have left the theater happy. Ankle bracelet for a teenager eh? Not exactly common practice but OK. I just hope they don't try to follow up this movie with some other stupid movie about that kid being more psychologically jacked up. Oh I know they are trying to come up with something just because so many of us wasted money on this pathetic piece of crap they call film.

I had seen the trailer of the movie and found it appealing. Later I found that it is somewhat similar to Rear Window – the Hitchcock movie and is on the same lines; that made me go and see this movie. It is the story of a young boy Kale (Shia LaBeouf) who is sentenced to 3 months of house arrest and finds ways to peep through his windows in neighbors' lives – one, the recently moved neighbor girl Ashley (Sarah Roemer) and another middle aged guy Mr.Turner (David Morse) who our young boy and his friend Ronnie (Aaron Yo) suspects as a killer. Is Mr.Turner a killer? Or this is just paranoia of our young gang? The Director D.J.Caruso – who has specialized in crime thrillers in past 4-5 movies, does a very decent job in keeping the audience engrossed in the narrative and unfolds the story slowly and nicely. The movie presents many aspects of drama, and takes us through a ride of varied sub-plots with good interest. There are a couple of minor annoying scenes – like the love aspect (quite unnecessary I thought, but may be required for today's young audiences) and the usual cliché of thriller movies. But overall the movie is entertaining. Shia LaBeouf is not a great actor, but does a decent job, so does the Sarah Roemer, Aaron Yo and David Morse. The camera work is excellent because it shows only that much which would make you eager to peep beyond the camera frame to see what is there – and that keeps you engaged. The music is okay. Yes, the movie is not close to the classic Rear Window, but I should say that I liked the movie. (Stars 6.75 out of 10)

Watch Disturbia. If you need to get rid of 7.50 with no benefit to yourself short of donating to charity, go see this movie. I would rather swim with sharks with steaks tied to my legs. This piece of cinema dog crap is not even a scary movie. The killer really doesn't even come into play until the last 20 minutes of the movie where he just goes on a mêlée rampage with a baseball bat out of the blue, totally pointless.. It's cheesy, it's jokes are stupid, and the killer's house is apparently designed by James Bond. He has a secret room, and then inside that secret room is another secret room that leads into a basement, where beneath the floorboards is another secret room. C'mon, a secret room in a secret room in a secret room, that's stupid! I couldn't care less whether or not the kid died, and to be frank, had the neighbor gone on his rampage in the beginning of the movie, it still would've made the exact same sense, which is "Hey, let's put a lot of teenagers in a house, and have a crazed psycho try to kill them!" This is a very original idea, and I think this movie is very "Oscar" worthy. I would have rather watched a two hour documentary on the odor of dog crap. This movie sucked.

I watched this flick because of the acclaimed critics. Well, it was a big mistake, because this film lacks everything that makes a film "viewable". Not good, but just viewable. There is a good basic idea that could be the base of a great movie, but both the screenwriters and the director failed to attain it. The result is a very boring movie without any surprises. It's just another teen movie, packed with high-tech, trendy stuff ads (such as the XBox360 or the PSP - everything that a modern teenager needs), but beneath the glossy surface there is nothing. What is wrong with the movie? Well, a lot of things. First of all, it is boring, the prelude is too long when literally nothing happens. The acting is bad. There is no suspense or surprise in the movie, everything is what it seems to be. I definitely do not recommend this movie for anyone who is older than 14 years old.

After the death of his father in a car accident, Kale Brecht (Shia LaBeouf) becomes a troublemaker and aggressive teenager. When he punches his Spanish teacher at school, he is sentenced to three months of house-arrest during his vacations. Kale snoops his neighbors with a binoculars and video camera for killing time, and becomes a voyeur of his next door neighbor Ashley Carlson (Sarah Roemer). When Ashley sees Kale and his friend Ronnie (Aaron Yo) at the window, he tells out of the blue that their neighbor Robert Turner (David Morse) seems to be a wanted serial killer from Austin, Texas. The trio sneaks around his house, and Kale begins to suspect that Mr. Turner might really be the murderer. How many times have I seen this story? The masterpiece "Rear Window" (1954) is as far as I remember the original story. "The Bedroom Window" is a decent thriller; the Christopher Reeve's remake of "Rear Window"; the cult and funny "Fright Night". All these movies tell the story of neighbor spying neighbor, but "Disturbia" is too predictable and full of clichés. The car accident in the very beginning is the best part of this film. In the rest, they have changed the "make-up", with the excellent David Morse and Carrie-Anne Moss and the gorgeous and sexy Sarah Roemer, but in the end, the story line remains the same. It is better off watching the classic movie of Alfred Hitchcock again than losing time with this overrated, forgettable and flawed flick. My vote is five. Title (Brazil): "Paranóia" ("Paranoia")

After the death of his father, Kale (LaBeouf) becomes angry and withdrawn. When he's failed in Spanish, he attacks his teacher, and is placed under house arrest for 3 months. Stripped of his mod cons (iTunes and xBox Live go out the window), he turns his attentions outside, and learns some disturbing truths about his suburban neighbourhood in a sinister take on the voyeuristic aspects of modern life. After making some loose connections between an ongoing missing persons case and one of his neighbours, Kale enlists his friends to help him find out what's going on. However, Kale is powerless to really influence events; if he leaves his garden, the police show up. It's a tool that works to great effect in terms of creating tension, placing him in the same position as the audience. He can only watch events as they play out outside his window and hope they turn out for the best, as we can only watch events on our screens and (presumably) hope for the same thing. There are obvious connections to Rear Window, the movie even being dubbed Rear Window for the MTV generation (although aren't we a bit past that now?), but while the original was a masterwork of suspense and doubt, Disturbia disposes of the subtlety and goes straight in for the kill with a surprisingly greasy David Morse and clichés aplenty (blood spatter, dark and stormy nights...). Of course, it requires some suspension of disbelief (where does an unemployed teen get the money for video home security systems?) but it is nonetheless an enjoyable, well-paced thriller. Good stuff.