Paranoïak

Disturbia is one of the best PG13 thrillers that I've seen in a long time. After all the other rated PG13 thrillers that have come out in the past six years or so, DJ Caruso, who directed, proves that it has always been possible to make a good suspenseful thriller these days without all the gore.

Shia Labeouf plays Kale Brecht. After witnessing the death of his father in a car accident, he becomes sullen and withdrawn. This leads to him being put under house arrest after he punches out an unsympathetic teacher. Imprisoned in his own house, and unable to go beyond 100 yards, he finds himself turning into a peeping tom and spying on all the neighbors. One of them is the attractive new girl in town named Ashley (Sarah Roemer) and another may be a killer named Mr. Turner (David Morse). With the help of the new girl Ashley, his friend Ronnie (a great comedic turn by Aaron Yoo), Kale goes about investigating Mr. Turner to see if he is the killer or not. The three teenagers use cell phones and the internet as well as video cameras in the investigation, and DJ Caruso shows some of his sly wit by using these same devices in the film to not only investigate the spooky neighbor, but also to create some humor to go along with everything else.

The plot is a familiar one. That would be because the great Alfred Hitchcock used it first with his famous suspense thriller Rear Window. Yes Disturbia is a blatant rip-off of that movie, but it is done with skill, and the acting by all, including Carrie Anne Moss as Kale's mother, was very good. All the characters are likable, and David Morse's turn as the creepy Mr. Turner was well done as well.

Disturbia may not be a great movie, but it is definitely one of the best PG13 thrillers in years. It outshines such horror thrillers as Cursed and Pulse, as well as the recent horror thriller The Messengers. Disturbia also once again proves that you don't need a bunch of gore to make an effective horror thriller. Horror directors take note.

'Disturbia' is a solid, entertaining thriller that does exactly what it says on the tin. Whilst it's nothing new or special, it is well made, suspenseful and effective in building and sustaining tension.

Shia LaBeouf and David Morse deliver solid performances as Kale and villain Mr Turner. Their characters are interesting and unpredictable and work well with the theme of the film. 'Disturbia' is well paced, the developments are appropriately timed and the film does a good job at keeping you guessing.

All in all, a perfectly decent mystery thriller. One of the better ones I have seen of late, and one I would recommend.

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'.

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)

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