the creep next door . . .
Added 9/13/2009
Directed by D. J. Caruso, Disturbia (2007) is an engaging teen thriller, that has an attractive cast, and a story that kind of works until the writers try to get too cute. With the main character trapped in a house gazing through a pair of binoculars, we have sort of a contemporary teenage twist on Rear Window, although with much more aggressive killer.
Kale Brecht (Shia LaBeouf) is serving home detention for slugging his teacher. The transmitter on an ankle bracelet, keeps the seventeen year old from leaving the boundaries of his suburban yard. With lots of time on his hands, he takes to spying on his neighbors, particularly Ashley (Sarah Roemer), a hot blonde that has just moved in next door. Before long Ashley, and Kale's friend Ronnie (Aaron Yoo) are engaged in the surveillance of neighbor Robert Turner (David Morse), a mysterious guy with strange habits, they suspect of being a serial killer.
Big surprise, they are correct! And Turner has the uncanny habit of popping up where you least expect, in the Brecht kitchen after helping Kale's mom Julie (Carrie Anne Moss) with car trouble, and later at the window of Ashley's car. What happens is fairly predictable, but still suspenseful and funny. Turner's home with its secret torture chamber and burial vault cellar, is too much to take seriously. The killer's demise, while a little unsatisfying, is thankfully swift.
Shia LaBeouf's (Transformers, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) performance is excellent, and his career seems to be on the fast track to stardom. Hopefully Sarah Roemer will get involved in some better quality films. Amazingly Aaron Yoo, 28 at the time, easily passes for a teenager. A competent and entertaining effort, Disturbia should have a strong appeal to the PG-13 audience.
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I still prefer "Rear Window"
Added 9/1/2009
Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window" is an absolute classic. It ranks with "The Birds," "Psycho," and "North by Northwest" as one of his finest films. "Disturbia" on the other hand . . . well I will honestly say that I still think "Rear Window" is far superior to this fairly horrible re-imagining. And I mean "fairly" horrible, because Shia LeBeouf, Carrie-Ann Moss, and David Morse give very good performances. But aside from that, "Disturbia" is pretty much a weak thriller. It involves cheap scares, lame humor, and a really mediocre script. It did have some decent moments, but other than that, I consider this as bad as other thrillers that have been released in this certain decade that we're living in right now. I still choose "Rear Window."
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Skip the intro and the conclusion. You still get a cool movie.
Added 7/31/2009
Take away the beginning and the end and you have a good solid thriller that's truly enjoyable for both teenagers and adults. Almost everyone agrees with the absurdity of the whole-killer-gone-mad-in-his-secret-dungeon at the end. The scene when Shia's character realises that his mother is going in the killer's house just as he's watching the picture of a corpse in a video shot earlier in that same killer's house, well that scene could've been the start of a great psychological finale. After all, nobody would've cared what shia's character thought anymore. The police wouldn't have come a second time or at least, they would've taken their time. He would've been alone. And you manage something where his video goes kapout! And he doesn't have a proof anymore. His mother is in the house of a killer. Only HE knows it but nobody believes him... Something like that. Instead, they just went crazy with that ridiculous killer-gone-mad thing. very sad.
And the whole intro with the father is COMPLETLY USELESS! A waste of time, a waste of money and we learn nothing that we wouldn't have understand later on, everytime Shia's character goes in his father's office. Plus, it goes against the rythm of the film. I can't believe that Spielberg (who's part of the film's producers) let this happened! You start the film at school and you introduce Shia's sleepy character with the punch in the nose and it's perfect! You start with a Bang! and you understand later why he did it. It's screenplay writing 101!
AND, AND, AND, AND, AND this darn commercial-bad-habbit of finishing a movie with a smile and a joke! What the hell is that? The guy and the girl just went through Hell! They almost died and he saw his mother being almost killed! Still, he finds the strenght to laugh and joke and wink? Like nothing happened? And if he gets the girl at the end, it then means that this whole nightmare was the best thing that's ever happened in their life, no? How can you write such a fun and cool movie and end it like that?
Makes you wonder about the logic of having more than one writer in a movie.
So, just skip the intro and the conclusion. You still got a cool movie. I guess it just goes to show how powerful the script is.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Favorite!!!
Added 7/1/2009
Ok, by far, BEST Shia LaBeouf movie ever! I have to be honest, I've only seen the film once, on STARZ, but I haven't seen it since, and it's the best. I just can't stop watching it. It's a must see for anyone who loves Suspense.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Disturbia is Much better than its reviews
Added 6/19/2009
I read the 1 reviews, and although I am not really into writing reviews I had to take exception the the ones I read. That pushed me a little to write this review.
I will agree that there was a lot of top of the line products shoved in front of your face. I saw it as a semi typical attempt to say that this is what the average american teenager has available to him for entertainment. I know for a fact that most do not so it was an attempt for the manufacturers of these products to put them in your face so you too will want to spoil your home bound teenager with.
This said I feel this is the only negative thing I want to say about the movie. Now I am 60 years old and I loved it. I do not care about the products placed in front of me so it was completely lost on me.
I looked at the movie as a coming of age formate movie, the first love. The finding out there is mor to a person than the items they have and play with.
Shia character find his heart throb, his love at first sight. Then as luck would have it it was a Rear Window take off that I think worked well. In an entertaining way. If you were to look at this as a reality sort of thing it would be a joke to have all of that happen the way it did. but this is a movie for entertainment value only.
I think it worked for that alone.
Like I said I would not be writing this if were not for the first negative review I read. I can see the point of some of the comments and if you really want to be critical then yeah OK I agree in away. But a reality check needs to be added. This is a creation of Hollywood. It is a movie right? It was not a reality video, so give it a break. It is for entertainment only it is not a documentary. There are things that are not perfect.
If you want to really compare it to Rear Window, thenI am sure there are some that can and will complain about that movie. I liked it too so I can not and will not.
I say the lower rateing are uncalled for and this movie is much much better than it was rated.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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the creep next door . . .
Added 9/13/2009
Directed by D. J. Caruso, Disturbia (2007) is an engaging teen thriller, that has an attractive cast, and a story that kind of works until the writers try to get too cute. With the main character trapped in a house gazing through a pair of binoculars, we have sort of a contemporary teenage twist on Rear Window, although with much more aggressive killer.
Kale Brecht (Shia LaBeouf) is serving home detention for slugging his teacher. The transmitter on an ankle bracelet, keeps the seventeen year old from leaving the boundaries of his suburban yard. With lots of time on his hands, he takes to spying on his neighbors, particularly Ashley (Sarah Roemer), a hot blonde that has just moved in next door. Before long Ashley, and Kale's friend Ronnie (Aaron Yoo) are engaged in the surveillance of neighbor Robert Turner (David Morse), a mysterious guy with strange habits, they suspect of being a serial killer.
Big surprise, they are correct! And Turner has the uncanny habit of popping up where you least expect, in the Brecht kitchen after helping Kale's mom Julie (Carrie Anne Moss) with car trouble, and later at the window of Ashley's car. What happens is fairly predictable, but still suspenseful and funny. Turner's home with its secret torture chamber and burial vault cellar, is too much to take seriously. The killer's demise, while a little unsatisfying, is thankfully swift.
Shia LaBeouf's (Transformers, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) performance is excellent, and his career seems to be on the fast track to stardom. Hopefully Sarah Roemer will get involved in some better quality films. Amazingly Aaron Yoo, 28 at the time, easily passes for a teenager. A competent and entertaining effort, Disturbia should have a strong appeal to the PG-13 audience.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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I still prefer "Rear Window"
Added 9/1/2009
Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window" is an absolute classic. It ranks with "The Birds," "Psycho," and "North by Northwest" as one of his finest films. "Disturbia" on the other hand . . . well I will honestly say that I still think "Rear Window" is far superior to this fairly horrible re-imagining. And I mean "fairly" horrible, because Shia LeBeouf, Carrie-Ann Moss, and David Morse give very good performances. But aside from that, "Disturbia" is pretty much a weak thriller. It involves cheap scares, lame humor, and a really mediocre script. It did have some decent moments, but other than that, I consider this as bad as other thrillers that have been released in this certain decade that we're living in right now. I still choose "Rear Window."
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
Skip the intro and the conclusion. You still get a cool movie.
Added 7/31/2009
Take away the beginning and the end and you have a good solid thriller that's truly enjoyable for both teenagers and adults. Almost everyone agrees with the absurdity of the whole-killer-gone-mad-in-his-secret-dungeon at the end. The scene when Shia's character realises that his mother is going in the killer's house just as he's watching the picture of a corpse in a video shot earlier in that same killer's house, well that scene could've been the start of a great psychological finale. After all, nobody would've cared what shia's character thought anymore. The police wouldn't have come a second time or at least, they would've taken their time. He would've been alone. And you manage something where his video goes kapout! And he doesn't have a proof anymore. His mother is in the house of a killer. Only HE knows it but nobody believes him... Something like that. Instead, they just went crazy with that ridiculous killer-gone-mad thing. very sad.
And the whole intro with the father is COMPLETLY USELESS! A waste of time, a waste of money and we learn nothing that we wouldn't have understand later on, everytime Shia's character goes in his father's office. Plus, it goes against the rythm of the film. I can't believe that Spielberg (who's part of the film's producers) let this happened! You start the film at school and you introduce Shia's sleepy character with the punch in the nose and it's perfect! You start with a Bang! and you understand later why he did it. It's screenplay writing 101!
AND, AND, AND, AND, AND this darn commercial-bad-habbit of finishing a movie with a smile and a joke! What the hell is that? The guy and the girl just went through Hell! They almost died and he saw his mother being almost killed! Still, he finds the strenght to laugh and joke and wink? Like nothing happened? And if he gets the girl at the end, it then means that this whole nightmare was the best thing that's ever happened in their life, no? How can you write such a fun and cool movie and end it like that?
Makes you wonder about the logic of having more than one writer in a movie.
So, just skip the intro and the conclusion. You still got a cool movie. I guess it just goes to show how powerful the script is.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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