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.

johndescy Really starts out good. I even cheered at one scene at the beginning. Somewhere around the middle of the movie, it all starts going downhill. Unnecessary and very cheesy romantic situations, logic plot holes big enough to fly a death star through, characters just behaving odd. The last 15 or 20 minutes or so only work if every single one character behaves as stupid as possible on every single occasion. Carrie-Anne Moss' character is totally underdeveloped. While her son is going through a lot of pain, there never seems to be a hint of her feeling anything similar about the situation. I just changed the rating from 4 to 3 while writing this. I better stop before it drops even lower.

zkonedog When evaluated as the thriller it is advertised to be, "Disturbia" is slightly above average, providing just enough drama/suspense to keep viewers interested. However, add in the incredible acting of Shia LaBeouf, and the film easily jumps up into the "very solid" category.For a basic plot summary, "Disturbia" very loosely follows the premise of Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window". In this case, young Kale (LaBeouf) is confined to house arrest after slugging a teacher. While homebound, Kale enlists the help of friend Ronnie (Aaron Yoo) and new-to-town girlfriend Ashley (Sarah Roemer) to spy on the next-door-neighbor Mr. Turner (David Morse), who they believe to be a serial killer.As I mentioned in the opener, as a "thriller" alone this movie is passable. If you a veteran of the genre you'll likely know what is coming, but otherwise it is still watchable. Some may deride the effort as a "Hitchcock rip-off", but it should instead be viewed as a "Hitchcock re-interpretation" for the younger generation (the ones who have no interest in watching Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly).The hallmark of the experience, though, is easily the acting of LaBeouf, who (as he so often did during that time period) represents the typical American teenage boy. He struggles with the utter boredom of house arrest, spies on the bikini-clad teenage girl across the yard (and then befriends her in his awkward way), and then lets himself get completely swept up in a fantastical plot involving Mr. Turner. These are all things that teenagers can relate to (or even older folks can remember relating to!) and make the movie much more personal to the viewer.Thus, while it is still quite possible that Mr. LaBeouf will go on to have a long and successful acting career, "Disturbia" will always represent his peak of teenage-themed flicks (right along with "Holes" & "Transformers"). Watch for that incredible acting or the suspense. Either way, you'll finding something to enjoy out of this one.

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.