Directed by D.J. Caruso
Viewed 9-17-08
You could almost call Disturbia a remake, seriously borrowing from the Hitchcock's classic Rear Window. The type casting was on par and the modernization worked well. Disturbia puts us in the shoes of a teenage boy serving a felony conviction under house arrest - not in a wheelchair, but restrained to his house nonetheless by an ankle-fit monitor and an over anxious cop.
Kale (Shia LaBeouf) lost his father while returning from a fishing trip in a car wreck, a rather amazing scene to open the movie. Kale was driving so he blames himself for the loss of his father. He becomes dysfunctional and self-alienated from general high school society.
His bad attitude is stuck at home, and the most meaningful thing he does is build a tower out of twinkies. That is until Ashley (Sarah Roemer) moves in next door - the hotness factor of this movie finally gets a big boost, approaching the magnitude of a Grace Kelly. Thanks to the sudden neighborhood eye candy with a swimming pool, Kale discovers a new hobby: observing the neighbors through binoculars, and so begins the Rear Window cliches. Many scenes are taken straight out of the classic movie, such as showing his best friend all of the movements of all of his neighbors - performing their daily routines right on cue.
We kept hoping to be surprised by who actually was the murderer because it was too predictable, too bad. Bodies stuffed inside the walls was nice, but the seemingly endless blundering of juvenile prank behavior became a little stale. The killer's cave was decorated with floating carcasses in a pit of muck, very nice, and a finely organized de-membering room allowed us to imagine the horrors.
This movie was partially selected for viewing due to the director and actor teaming up again for Eagle Eye, which hits my local theater on Friday, Sept. 26, 2008. We rated it a B- and recommend it as a non new release rental, or for broadcast viewing. After watching Disturbia, I'm not eager to watch Eagle Eye anytime soon.
