Paranoia

This movie was extremely well paced -- there was very good character development without excessive dialog. The story is exciting and thrilling: a modernized Rear Window. The acting was very solid, and every actor, major or minor, sold their part. Shia LeBeouf was a likable protagonist, Carrie-Anne Moss did a great job in her role as the mother, and David Morse played an exceedingly ominous and creepy neighbor. The climax is very suspenseful, although it did contain a few minor lapses in rational behavior by both the heroes and the villain, but I suppose that could be written off as desperation. Overall, it was refreshing to see a well-paced thriller with great suspense, humor, and character development.

Disturbia tells the story of a teenage boy named Kale who is sentenced to three months house arrest after punching a teacher in the face for making a comment about his recently deceased father. When his mother takes away his TV and his computer, he resorts to spying on the houses surrounding him. Things begin to get frightening when he begins to suspect one of his neighbours is a serial killer. He gets his friends involved with his impromptu investigation, and soon the neighbour realizes he's being watched...And he's not too happy about it. Disturbia is loosely based off the 1954 Alfred Hitchcock classic Rear Window, but it is still a film all in itself, and it is the best thriller I've seen in a while.

What makes this movie better than most horror movies that are released today is that is doesn't rely on excessive gore and gross out tactics to frighten you. It relies on mood and suspense, and that works so much better. As the film went on, the tension got so high that I was literally on the edge of my seat rubbing my hands together because I was so anxious to see what was going to happen next. I actually felt the adrenaline rush that the characters in the film must have been feeling when they were snooping around in the neighbour's garage. The movie has a realistic feel of how creepy it would be to have a serial killer living across the street from you and you had no way to prove it. Everything in this movie is done well. The writing, the directing, the way it all pans out. I was actually shocked when I left the theatre over how good this movie really was.

The acting was very good from everybody involved. Shia LaBeouf has come a long way from Even Stevens. Something tells me that he has a nice career ahead of him. David Morse is perfectly sinister as the neighbour. He's just one of those actors that you might not know who he is to hear his name, but he pops up here and there and you always say, "Cool, it's that guy." Overall, this was an amazing thriller, and I'm glad I went to see it because I really wasn't expecting that much. It leads me to wonder why Hollywood continues to pump out absolute garbage like the Saw trilogy, Hostel, and Dead Silence when they could be making movies like this instead.

8/10

Not expecting a masterpiece, I can honest say I was very pleasantly surprised at just how much fun I had watching this movie. While it clearly tries way too hard to be hip, and the staggering amount of product placement serves only to distract, the story serves its purpose of allowing DJ Caruso to pull every trick out of the book, to very satisfying effect.

Shia LaBeouf just about gets by on his charm, but also hints at his ability as an actor, which was firmly cemented through his stunning performance in 'A Guide To Recoginzing Your Saints' last year. His character is nothing new, nor is his predicament, but he remains likable enough and it is hardly difficult to see why he is so taken by his new neighbour, played by the gorgeous Sarah Roemer.

David Morse is appropriately creepy as the neighbourhood nut-job and Carrie Anne Moss, while given little to work with, is fine as LaBeouf's mother.

The story unfolds well, and the red herrings serves to stretch the anticipation until the brutally tense finale. If you're looking for 90 minutes of unabashed, self-indulgent fun, you could do a lot worse than 'Disturbia'.

Disturbia...Oh the possibilities. But!, if you ask me this movie is a steaming pile of "hot" poo. The entire story is way to simple for anyone to take serious. The writers could have really made this movie into something great, but I guess that was their intentions. I guess thats why it's rated PG-13, but I don't any 13 year old that would be even remotely disturbed by this movie. Why would anyone call a movie that is rated PG-13 scary, if the movie does nothing of the sort. I feel completely retarded for even thinking this movie was going to be entertaining. But then again most movies of this nature end up getting us all the time. I wouldn't even recommend sneaking in to see it, the end result will leave you feeling angered for wasting your efforts to sneak in. Well ill just add this to the list of movies that shoulda...coulda...but didn't and try and remind myself that a PG-13 movie could never scary, and watch something else.

The first time I saw this preview, the first thought that came into my head was "Oh, my God, how could they rip off Rear Window?", Rear Window is one of my all time favorite movies. But my boyfriend and I had nothing better to do last week and decided to see it, I have to say that actually, it wasn't as bad as I expected, I have to admit that it was a pretty good re-introduction to one of the greatest thrillers of all time. It had a new and fresh feeling with teens and it worked, despite how it seemed a bit more predictable than Rear Window, it still was pretty clever.

Kale has had a rough year, while driving his father back from their father/son fishing trip, they get into a horrible fatal car accident, the Father dies, but Kale is alive trying to deal with the guilt of what happened. But a teacher pushes him too far in his high school Spanish class and he hits the teacher, putting him on house arrest, he cannot leave outside his property. But he's in luck when a hot young girl moves next door, they quickly develop a peeping tom type of relationship, they spy on the neighbors, but when they see the neighbor across the street on a date, but the date "never leaves the house" and they want to prove him as a cold hearted murderer, but is he? You'll have to see this movie to find out.

So Distubia was a pretty good movie, I would recommend it, although before you see it, I would highly recommend seeing Rear Window, but this was a good updated version that I'm sure you'll enjoy. It keeps you on the edge of your seat and will make you ask questions over and over again, those are always the thrillers that are worth seeing.

7/10