Movie Review: Disturbia- 8/7/07

Synopsis: Starring Shia LeBeouf (Greatest Game Ever Played, Holes, Transformers), this is a semi-remake of the classic Alfred Hitchcock and Cary Grand “Rear Window” movie with a modern twist. Instead of a middle-aged man trapped in a wheelchair as he’s recuperating viewing his neighbors out his window, we get a troubled kid on house-arrest with an ankle monitor keeping him from leaving the vicinity of his house.

We start with see The Kid with his father on a fishing trip. Afterwards on the drive home they are in a car accident and the father dies. One year later the kid is having problems at school and ends up punching his Spanish teacher in class and thus gets placed on house arrest with an ankle monitor that will beep and notify the police if he leaves his home for more than a few seconds. The kid has a wise-cracking asian friend/side-kick. He is bored at home after his mom takes away his XBOX and t.v. privileges, so he ends up watching his neighbors though his binoculars throughout the day. Then new neighbors move in with an attractive teenage daughter the same age as the kid. After seeing reports on the news of a string of murders in Texas that is happening in the same town as the kid now, he suspects the male neighbor across the street of being a murderer. After courting the girl, both the kid, his friend and the girl start spying and trying to get details on the neighbors. They break into his car and home trying to get info. on missing women that have been killed. The kids gets in trouble for stalking the neighbor and the neighbor starts appearing frightening the kids.

As the movie nears the ending, the neighbor attack’s the kids’s mom, knocks out the sidekick and tries to kill the boy since he know’s their on to him. The girl tries and helps the boy who runs into the neighbor’s house and find a hidden underground surgery room and basement where bodies are found. He struggles with the killer and ends up killing him in the end. As the movie ends, the boy is let off early from his house arrest and he finally hooks up with the girl. The end.

Comments: Basic suspense-thriller movie, nothing too surprising. There was a good scene with the sidekick entering the neighbor’s garage to snoop on them, but the movie is a bit predictable. What saves the movie is Shia LeBeouf and his great timing as an actor and whit used in the comedic bits. Not as notable as the Hitchcock version, but as a quick movie to watch on a weeknight, this is pretty enjoyable.

Score: I give it 3.0 out of 5 Monster Stars for those looking for a cat-and-mouse type suspense thriller.