CheerupSilver Very Cool!!!

Bardlerx Strictly average movie

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The Movie Diorama This is a tough one to review. On the one side I remember really enjoying this as a smart little teen thriller back in my youth. Re-watching it now, it's far too clichéd and problematic to withstand any real thrills. Do I score this based on the time it was released, or how badly it's dated? We shall see. A grieving and troublesome boy is put under house arrest where he lives his daily routine by spying on his neighbours, a new girl on the block on one side and a potential serial killer on the other. You could class this as a modernised version of Hitchcock's famous 'Rear Window', it does indeed pay homage to this in a few subtle ways. The slow build up of suspense and tension is well crafted, much like 'Rear Window'. The first half is focussed purely on building up the protagonist, the second then descends into thriller territory. Do the two marinate? Not consistently. It does feel like you are watching two different films. A comedic light hearted teen flick then contrasts with a dark suspenseful thriller. I understand why, to show that any neighbourhood no matter how pleasant the exterior seems does indeed hold ominous secrets. In this case, a murdering psychopath. Separately these two halves work really well and are thoroughly enjoyable, although filled with mediocrity. They just don't blend together. Shia LaBeouf actually gives a decent lead performance. David Morse and Carrie-Anne Moss needed way more screen time, although the former was very menacing. Unfortunately, director DJ Caruso was too focussed on filming Sarah Roemer's ass and having fans blow into the actor's faces just to blissfully move their hair in a gentle breeze to care about the technical aspects of the film. The cheap alt-rock soundtrack, the forced romance which amounts to nothing in the final act and lack of character development. The whole film felt mediocre, but still pleasantly enjoyable. It's a weird one this, but I'm in a good mood so will grant it with the higher score. Entertaining but far too many flaws.

grittenc The first time I watched this movie, I feel like I traveled through countless different vibes. I feel that this movie accomplished a feeling of different moods throughout, but ultimately got the point that it was trying to portray across. This movie, for the most part, was successful in keeping the audience engaged and on edge throughout.This movie starts off with making the audience feel bad for Kale, who has just lost his father in an accident. So, when he punches his teacher due to a comment he made about his father, the audience still feels sympathetic towards Kale. Once Kale is on house arrest, the mood shifts to more comedic occurrences with him and his best friend Ronnie. The absolute boredom that Kale goes through brings out some funny scenes and uplifts the audiences mood at the start of the film.Then, there is also a great romantic mood in this movie. As Ashley, his next door neighbor, moves in, they start to interact and become romantically involved. This opens up the doors to a separate audience who enjoys romance in films.Finally, the main objective of the film is to portray itself as a true thriller. I believe this is done extremely well because it slowly builds throughout the course of the movie. At first, Turner is just a neighbor who mows his lawn a couple times a day. However, as the movie progresses more and more suspense builds through Kale trying to figure out if Turner is the serial killer from the news. By the time the movie is in it's last thirty minutes, it is an all out jaw dropping thriller.One important thing to also mention is the amazing soundtrack to this film. Each song really helps to elevate the current situation Kale is in with being under house arrest. When the song "Lonely Day" is played, it really does make you sympathize with how lonely Kale probably is.There are so many different moods in this film, and that is why I ultimately believe it was successful, and an overall great production. This is still one of my favorite movies to watch to this day, and I will always appreciate the versatility it provided.

tomgillespie2002 Back in 2007, Steven Spielberg pushed for Disturbia to be a vehicle for up-and-comer Shia LaBeouf, the kid he was so impressed with in Holes. He would also later cast the young star in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and no doubt played a part in hiring LaBeouf for the lead in Michael Bay's Transformers franchise. It hasn't quite gone to plan for the once cherub-faced and effortlessly charming actor, but his off-camera antics are perhaps more to blame than his film choices, as well as his frequently bizarre artistic endeavours. Anyway, LaBeouf is the best thing about Disturbia, demonstrating the sort of motor-mouthed confidence and assured screen presence Spielberg no doubt saw in him when he was still a child actor. Still, he cannot save Disturbia from turning into a conveyor belt of clichés and slasher tropes.Traumatised by his father's death a year earlier, teenager Kale Brecht (LaBeouf) struggles to focus in school. When a classroom incident leaves his Spanish teacher with a swollen face, Kale is sentenced to three months house arrest wearing an ankle monitor that bleeps when he ventures further than 100 yards from his house. After a montage of video games, junk food and Red Bull, Kale's mother Julie (Carrie- Anne Moss) takes away all his television and music privileges. Boredom soon sets in, until he spots his beautiful new neighbour Ashley (Sarah Roemer) taking a dip in the pool. Using his binoculars, he starts to watch his neighbours intently, buoyed on by his comic-relief best friend Ronnie (Aaron Yoo). Ashley soon joins in on their games, as their attention is turned to creepy neighbour Mr. Turner (David Morse), whose car and general behaviour matches that of a serial killer being reported in the local news.Clearly aiming for Rear Window for the teenage crowd, Disturbia forgets to add that one key Hitchcockian ingredient: suspense. If you have seen the trailer for D.J. Caruso's film, then there's really no need to see the whole thing. A fast-paced beginning that introduces the three perfectly likable teens zips by smoothly, and offers the odd genuine laugh. When the central serial killer story kicks into gear, the action descends into a series of loud bangs and quick edits, so all hope for anything resembling tension quickly flies out of the window. Almost as if film is afraid of offending its young target audience, the moments of 'horror' are frustratingly soft, and it fails to convince that any of its attractive young cast are ever in any real peril. I was left waiting for a twist, or even a moderate surprise, that never came, so I was forced to sit through a plot I had worked out within the first twenty minutes. If this is what passes for suspense nowadays, Hitchcock would turn in his massive grave.

Leofwine_draca DISTURBIA is a big generic Hollywood film that tells a story that's already been told in cinema. This time around, REAR WINDOW is the film that's being ripped off, except the story is reinvented for the teenage crowd with a young leading characters, lots of teen stuff going on (romance, parties, chicks in bikinis, mobile phones, etc.) and a villain straight out of a horror movie who gradually becomes more involved in the actual plot as the story carries on. For the most part this is a slick and efficient example of film making, a film with a fast pace that keeps you watching. Sure, it's full of clichés and unbelievable situations, and a plot full of holes when you think about it too much, but that's pretty much par for the course in modern Hollywood productions.There's something about Shia LaBeouf I just don't like. I hated his character in TRANSFORMERS, and the way he's portrayed by Spielberg as some kind of golden boy. He's a little better in DISTURBIA, even if I couldn't bring myself to actually "like" him. One interesting thing is that the script portrays his character as a real voyeur, getting his kicks watching his sexy female neighbour undress every night. However, LaBeouf isn't condemned for this behaviour, it's just presented as the norm…boys will be boys, and all that. The whole sub-plot involving the killer neighbour seems fairly extraneous to the main story of the romance, and there isn't a great deal of spying going on.It's a shame, because there's a brilliant and underrated actor playing the bad guy: David Morse. Morse is equally at home playing both good guys and bad, and he fills his character here with a real sense of menace. He needs more screen time and more roles. The rest of the cast list, including an almost unrecognisable Carrie-Ann Moss, just don't cut it, although I will admit that Sarah Roemer is cute. In any case, things play out well enough, and there's not really anything to dislike. Things end in one of those 20-minute hero vs. villain finales, full of jump scenes, death, rotting bodies, and a villain who just won't stay dead. I would have preferred a little more wit with the script, but this movie manages to get by without that. I enjoyed it, even if I don't want to see it again.