Disturbia
Approximately 53 years ago, Alfred Hitchcock astounded us all with one of his thriller classics, Rear Window. Now we have a modern day version of it. So does Disturbia do the original justice, or was the real killer behind the camera? Let's find out.
As the movie opens, we find Kale (Shia LaBeouf) fishing with his father. After the fishing trip, they drive home and end up getting into a car wreck. Kale walks out with only cuts and scrapes, but his father ends up dead. Zoom ahead a year where we find him in a Spanish class trying to tell his fellow class mates what he's going to do over the summer. He can't do it, so his teacher comes up to him saying that he will fail and "What would your father think?". This sens Kale over the edge. He punches his teacher in the face and ends up on house arrest for three months. After he gets the ankle bracelet put on, he goes on to play some video games with some buddies, watches TV, and listens to music. However, he finds that his mother, Julie (Carrie-Anne Moss), has cut off access to everything. So he starts watching the neighbors, mainly Mr. Turner (David Morse), the old guy that lives on one side, and the new neighbor girl, Ashley (Sarah Roemer). His buddy, Ronnie (Aaron Yoo), comes over to hang out, but they end up just watching Ashley a lot. After a while, Kale introduces himself to Ashley and she finds all the things he does locked up in the house. That night, they begin spying on Mr. Turner, who has a call girl come in to his house. Then some strange things start happening during the visit. The girl starts screaming and running around the house. She leaves later that night, but Kale still suspects something went on in Mr. Turner's house. So Kale sets out to discover exactly what went on over there.
First off, when seeing a movie like this, you have to keep in mind it's target audience, which is teenagers. With that stated, there's a lot of great things going for this movie. The characters are all great. When Kale, Ashley, and Ronnie all get together to try and figure out what exactly is going on in Mr. Turner's house, they don't just sit there and say "Yeah. He's killing people". They actually come up with perfectly reasonable explanations for why certain things happen. As for David Morse, he gives a wonderful performance as the creepy neighbor next door. He keeps a calm tone through the entire movie, but as it keeps going, the tone picks up an eerie feel just naturally. As for the story, it flows together nicely. It stays creepy, but also knows that the teenagers will love to have time to relax . It gives room for character development between Kale and Ashley, which ends up working. I also loved the idea of having him be under house arrest instead of suffering from a leg injury or something similar to that. They could of easily had it so that his leg was permanently broken after the car crash, but they didn't. With the use of house arrest, it allows Kale to roam around outside, which allows Mr. Turner to be even creepier than if you were just witnessing what he does.
Although, with every good, there's a bad. Yes, the characters having these discussions of what could be going on in Mr. Turner's house does help convince the viewer that they're just imagining things. However, the movie doesn't want to wait for the characters to figure out that something is going on in Turner's house. Early on in the film, you do see blood splatter on one of his windows. This could be taken as he was just cutting up some meat, but not everyone is that gullible. In Rear Window, nothing was ever really shown that proved the neighbor was a killer until you paid really close attention or let the main character tell you. It wasn't until everyone was convinced that the audience finally became convinced. Here, it's given away early, so all the bickering back and forth is ruined. Then there's Ashley. What was the point of her character existing? She was just eye candy. She does one thing in the entire movie to help prove Turner of being a killer, and it's not really that much. Kale and Ronnie do way more than she does. If she was taken out, there would be no difference whatsoever.
So would I recommend this movie? Of course. While it's not as amazing as Rear Window, it definitely can stand on its own two feet just a little behind it. Whether you're a teenager or just a fan of thrillers/mysteries, this is one film you don't want to miss.
As the movie opens, we find Kale (Shia LaBeouf) fishing with his father. After the fishing trip, they drive home and end up getting into a car wreck. Kale walks out with only cuts and scrapes, but his father ends up dead. Zoom ahead a year where we find him in a Spanish class trying to tell his fellow class mates what he's going to do over the summer. He can't do it, so his teacher comes up to him saying that he will fail and "What would your father think?". This sens Kale over the edge. He punches his teacher in the face and ends up on house arrest for three months. After he gets the ankle bracelet put on, he goes on to play some video games with some buddies, watches TV, and listens to music. However, he finds that his mother, Julie (Carrie-Anne Moss), has cut off access to everything. So he starts watching the neighbors, mainly Mr. Turner (David Morse), the old guy that lives on one side, and the new neighbor girl, Ashley (Sarah Roemer). His buddy, Ronnie (Aaron Yoo), comes over to hang out, but they end up just watching Ashley a lot. After a while, Kale introduces himself to Ashley and she finds all the things he does locked up in the house. That night, they begin spying on Mr. Turner, who has a call girl come in to his house. Then some strange things start happening during the visit. The girl starts screaming and running around the house. She leaves later that night, but Kale still suspects something went on in Mr. Turner's house. So Kale sets out to discover exactly what went on over there.
First off, when seeing a movie like this, you have to keep in mind it's target audience, which is teenagers. With that stated, there's a lot of great things going for this movie. The characters are all great. When Kale, Ashley, and Ronnie all get together to try and figure out what exactly is going on in Mr. Turner's house, they don't just sit there and say "Yeah. He's killing people". They actually come up with perfectly reasonable explanations for why certain things happen. As for David Morse, he gives a wonderful performance as the creepy neighbor next door. He keeps a calm tone through the entire movie, but as it keeps going, the tone picks up an eerie feel just naturally. As for the story, it flows together nicely. It stays creepy, but also knows that the teenagers will love to have time to relax . It gives room for character development between Kale and Ashley, which ends up working. I also loved the idea of having him be under house arrest instead of suffering from a leg injury or something similar to that. They could of easily had it so that his leg was permanently broken after the car crash, but they didn't. With the use of house arrest, it allows Kale to roam around outside, which allows Mr. Turner to be even creepier than if you were just witnessing what he does.
Although, with every good, there's a bad. Yes, the characters having these discussions of what could be going on in Mr. Turner's house does help convince the viewer that they're just imagining things. However, the movie doesn't want to wait for the characters to figure out that something is going on in Turner's house. Early on in the film, you do see blood splatter on one of his windows. This could be taken as he was just cutting up some meat, but not everyone is that gullible. In Rear Window, nothing was ever really shown that proved the neighbor was a killer until you paid really close attention or let the main character tell you. It wasn't until everyone was convinced that the audience finally became convinced. Here, it's given away early, so all the bickering back and forth is ruined. Then there's Ashley. What was the point of her character existing? She was just eye candy. She does one thing in the entire movie to help prove Turner of being a killer, and it's not really that much. Kale and Ronnie do way more than she does. If she was taken out, there would be no difference whatsoever.
So would I recommend this movie? Of course. While it's not as amazing as Rear Window, it definitely can stand on its own two feet just a little behind it. Whether you're a teenager or just a fan of thrillers/mysteries, this is one film you don't want to miss.