Disturbia - Review

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Rated: PG-13

Distributor: DreamWorks Pictures

Release Date: 2007-04-13

Starring: Shia LaBeouf, David Morse, Sarah Roemer, and Carrie-Anne Moss

Directed by D.J. Caruso

Produced by Joe Medjuck, E. Bennett Walsh, Jackie Marcus

Written by Christopher Landon and Carl Ellsworth

Visit the movie's Official Site!

Reviewed by Josh Tyler : 2007-04-11 16:26:14

The first thing nearly everyone says about Disturbia when they see the trailers is “hey that looks like Rear Window”. The comparison is unavoidable. Rear Window is Hitchcock, and thus the high water mark in peeping tom thrillers. Disturbia star Shia LaBeouf has defended his film against those comparisons by pointing out that there’s room for more than one film in the genre, and he’s right, assuming that his film can bring something new to the table. In fact beyond the surface similarities of a guy sitting at a window with binoculars scoping out a possible killer across the fence, Rear Window and Disturbia really aren’t all that similar. Actually, if you want to compare Disturbia to something, it’s almost exactly like the Tom Hanks comedy The 'Burbs, only without any attempt to be funny and with a bunch of annoying, too-perfect teenagers. It’s like someone took The 'Burbs and cross-bred it with the career of Freddie Prinze Jr. In case you’re wondering, that’s not a good thing. That stuff in the back of your throat is bile. This is the spot where you’re supposed to gag.

Shia LaBeouf plays a trouble teenager named Kale who, after he punches his Spanish teacher, ends up with a bracelet on his leg and under house arrest. If he goes further than 100 feet from his kitchen, the cops show up and drag him off to jail. His mother (Carrie-Anne Moss) decides he’s not going to spend his time having fun, and so she cuts off his videogames and terminates his iTunes account, leaving Kale with nothing to do except build Twinky forts and stare out a window to watch what his suburbanite neighbors are up to.

Rather than get down to the business of being a thriller right off the bat, most of the movie is spent glamorizing how awesome teenagers are, as incredibly good looking, MTV hip Kale flexes and hangs around with his equally good looking obligatory funny Asian friend and finds ways to ogle and hit on Ashley (Sarah Roemer) the super-hot new girl next door. Kind of makes you long for the days when you were an uber-cool supermodel teenager too doesn’t it? The weird thing is that in the past Shia LaBeouf hasn’t belonged with the perfectly toned bodies and bubbly enhanced breasts of the usual Hollywood teen movie. It’s somewhat disturbing to discover that the slightly nerdy, lovable, everykid child actor may be on the verge of turning into the new Paul Walker.

When not re-enacting beats from Fast Times At Ridgemont High, Disturbia plays a lot like Monster House, with Kale staring out his window at a creepy neighbor and wondering whether or not he might have dead bodies in his garage. Because if you had dead bodies, that’s where you’d keep them… that way your neighbors can see them every time you pull out your car. The movie telegraphs everything long before it does it, and the script is incredibly manipulative. This is a film so desperate to get an emotional response out of you, that it brutally kills a kid’s dad in the first five minutes, for no other reason than to make sure you sympathize with the movie’s lead character later on when he’s stupidly stumbling around the house of a serial killer.

In the last fifteen minutes Disturbia really gets down to being a thriller. In better movies about voyeuristic mysteries, the entire film before this would have been spent building up to a confrontation between our hero and the guy he believes to be a serial killer. The fun of this type of film is usually in wondering whether or not our voyeur is right: is the guy next door really a murderer or has our hero simply gone stir crazy? Disturbia only pretends to have that much complexity. In reality we know all the answers long before the movie gets around to reveal them, and even when it does reveal them it does so much too early. The end of the movie devolves into a clumsy, standard horror movie chase sequence in which a killer pursues a victim who, for inexplicable reasons decides to make every stupid mistake the film’s writers could think of.

Disturbia is clumsy, manipulative, and worst of all a creatively bankrupt pastiche of other, better films. Shia LaBeouf is right, there is room for more than one movie in the voyeur genre, but only if that movie brings something new to the table. Disturbia is well shot, it looks great, and if you’re a teenager it’s probably the perfect date movie. It is not however, new. It’s a mish-mash of other people’s ideas crammed into a movie that doesn’t deserve to use them with a lead actor who’s either simply been miscast or has morphed from an interesting young actor to something wholly evil. How long do you think, before Shia LaBeouf is dating Lindsay Lohan?

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Joe
January 27, 2008 at 02:55

Hey Naima..."It's called Hollywood for a reason"???? Unless the word hollywood is in the dictionary and it means the acceptance of inconsistencies in movies and was there before Hollywood was named, I don't think that is why they call it Hollywood, moron.

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Brian
December 6, 2007 at 14:09

I thought it was agood movie also...
Chris
The car crash scene... That happens in real life.. about the killer being over there in less then a minute what about all the friday the 13th movies where he walks every where and still catches up to people... The thing I really wanna know about the movie is who was the house maid across the street.. anyone know

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Collin
November 22, 2007 at 09:41

Wow. I am absolutely compelled by this movie. It has to be, if not the best, one of the best movies I have ever seen. The story is very clear throughout the entire movie, with just the right amount of just the right type of humor. The acting is great! Shia LaBeouf did a great job acting, and so did everybody else. The suspense is great, building at times when other things are going on, like Ashley's party.
Overall, this was a great movie, and it is now up with my favorite movies.

As for the car crash, what had happened was Kale looked at his dad just as the truck moved ahead of the parked car, and the parked car was pulled over to the side, probably because it had broken down (notice the people standing to the right). Kale swerved, immediately noticing the car, but did not make it in time, and the rest I'm unsure of.

PS am I the only person who thought that it was funny when Ron hit the window with the binoculars?

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Joe
September 23, 2007 at 20:01

Good movie and at times scary,
The only thing that bugges me is the fact that after it all ends (The murderer is killed and all is saved) everyone just goes on like nothing happenes. He was attacked by a murderer, his friend, girlfriend and mother were attacked, he fell into a floating corpse pile and found some aswell the the next day everything is fine? He would be in shock or scared or something not joking around with his girlfriend and such.

P.S. I know it's a movie but its just something I noticed.

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Gabriel
August 23, 2007 at 06:24

Well, I just saw the movie, and wow, I loved it too, and just like Amber I thought it was one of the best movies I've seen for some reason, It just got me. I'm gonna get it as soon as possible too. It was more like a teenage movie with a little bit of terror. I loved it, they should make more movies like this. In many scenes I felt connected to the character (playing 360, PC, chillin with friends, even when he threw that soda can to the trash, lol, I do that gesture too).

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Amber
July 31, 2007 at 03:12

That would be the BEST movie I have ever seen EVER! Normally I don't stay at the end of the movie, the second the movie ends i'm out, but with that movie, it was so great I couldn't seem to move. It took me a while to get back to reality. I love that movie so much! Shia Labouf was on the show Even Stevens, so I didn't think he could be serious through a whole movie, he was amazing and that movie wouldn't have been the same without him in it. I love this movie so much and the second it comes out on DVD i'm so getting it!

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Connor
July 7, 2007 at 00:08

The theater was filled with overzealous fans which complemented the over all mood of the film quite nicely. The movie opened with a slow, calm feeling and quickly, but smoothly changed to the more thrilling movie the trailers made it out to be. However, the trailers hardly did the movie any justice, the film its self far exceeding my expectations. The film offered the perfect mix of action, suspense, romance, and even surprising me with the occasional chuckle. The well directed film wrapped its self up with a satisfying and heroic end leaving me and the rest of theater with a great feeling. I give the movie two thumbs way WAY up and i highly recommend the movie for all who are craving an erotic, suspenseful, action packed thriller. 5 outa 5 stars

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Kelci
July 3, 2007 at 16:46

Hey i thought disturbia rocked! I dont see why you guys hate it. Well not all of you :). but still.. i would see it again.. and maybe it appeals to different age groups, maybe mine liked it and an older or younger group hated it! its up to yourself dont try to change other peoples opinions.

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Katie
July 2, 2007 at 14:04

I thought it was a good movie, I don't see why everyone hates it so much!

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Caitlin
June 21, 2007 at 23:31

Oh my god this movie was so amazing. I walked out and said " when does it come out on dvd?" The beginning seemed to go real slow but in the end it totally turns around. And to the person above, the party girl did not leave again, the dude had a wig and pretended to be her and leave. The movie was awesome but the end sucked. I think they should have shown the police go into the house to discover the bodies and everything the guy had in there. But yea great movie!!!!

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Tori
June 12, 2007 at 12:29

Ok come on ! i luved that movie!!!! and to answer the top guys question, he had a shorter way top get in that under ground basement thing to tie the mum up!!!!! i thought it was fantastic and also, i didnt thing it was like loads of other movies, then again if you think about it, all horrors are the same!!!!
Plus my friend rach says, the review is crazy and she loved it!!!

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Rachel
June 10, 2007 at 21:39

I think disturbia was a great movie
Im very glad i saw it
And cant wait untill it comes out on dvd
I think everyone should watch it
it wasent a shitty movie at all.

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the_miker
May 13, 2007 at 16:15

Thanks for the reviews, I am about to go download it from a pirate site but did not want to waste my bandwidth if it was a shity movie. seems to be a good movie. Ok off to download

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Shaquetta
May 3, 2007 at 14:13

Disturbia was such a great movie! i dont even like scary movies so u kno cumin from me it was good! lol it made me cry in the beginning and the really scary parts, but overall it was really good! N Shia LeBeouf cute self and the other characters played those parts really good!

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Alessa, 14
May 2, 2007 at 16:17

I REALLY loved that movie!!! I only watched it once in the theater and I figured it all out like Naima.....it was sooo amazing. It had a blend of love, horror, i don't kno about drama though....but it was amazing, to amazing for words. Yes, I would definitely watch it again, and I'll still have the same reaction to all the parts. The only part I didn't like was the very end before the subtitles because so many questions were unanswered. And who ends a movie with a make-out session. I wish they'd have shown him going back to school to see how all the other students would react to Kale's bravery..AH-MAH-ZING movie....SEE IT NOW!!!! ,......if not already done.
Peace,
Alessa

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Naima
May 1, 2007 at 01:37

OK Chris, a couple things......
It's called Hollywood for a reason. Not everything is going to happen at the normal distance in time. That's how the murderer man dude was able to attack Kales mom and then go to his house, its a movie, get over it.
Ronnie got out of the house through the front door, remember Kale going in through the already opened front door?? Well, guess who opened it and got out of the house through it??
Just like Jessica said, the girl went back home to call the police because Kale told her to, she didn't go to bed.
For the club girl, u probably weren't paying attention to the movie. Yes, u c her walking out of the house and driving away. But, remember when Kale found the hidden room??? There was a wig in the room. The murder dressed up like the club girl and drove away from his own house in order to make it seem like the club girl walked in and walked out. He didn't want anyone suspecting anything -if they were watching.It's not that difficult to figure out, especially when Kale said "she never left the house".
The car wasn't stopped in the middle of the road, it was on the side. The only reason Kale waited for the last minute to move the car was because the huge Ford was in the front of Kale's vision and moved in the last minute. Chris, have u ever driven b4?? It's not easy to all of a sudden steer the car in a total differnt direction in like 3 seconds. Kale tried moving the car but didn't make it, remember???
Some people do change wit their blinds open. In the suburbs, u expect to be safe and not have people looking at u throught the windows!! Believe me, there r people that change with their blinds open ( even if you live in da suburbs or in da getto, yes I've lived in both) - and believe me its not an experience you want to always be blessed with.
The cops didn't go right away cuz they thought that the teacher's cousin (police officer) was taking care of the whole situation. Remember, he delayed the time by eating at a fast food place?? Then guess wut, he got murdered. Of course. its gunna delay the arrival of the police. Also, don't forget, this is a movie-Hollywood Chris, Hollywood.
Were u paying any attention to the movie at all Chris??? Jeeze, I watched the movie once and I already had everything figured out-lol. Maybe you were half asleep, i don't know. I can c where u can be bored during the movie. Personally, I liked it, I thought it was interesting and the comic relief inbetween was put in at the right moments. Would I rent the movie again?? No, but I don't regret watching it. Hope I didn't offend you too much Chris :) Its all good!!!

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Simeon
April 30, 2007 at 01:07

I don't know why everyone's hatin on disturbia. I thought it was great.
of course some parts didn't make sense, but most thrillers don't make sense. The killer always seems to move lightning fast.

The movie might have been predictable and stuff, but that don't make it terrible. It got my adrenaline rushing near the end.

I don't care what yall say. Disturbia was good, but that's a matter of opinion.

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Alyce
April 24, 2007 at 00:11

Disturbia was terribly disappointing. I was so excited to go out and see it and the first scene was horribly corny. It was a preview if things to come I guess. The love story was lame, it was too slow moving, and too predictable. I was so upset.

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Jessica
April 22, 2007 at 18:43

I loved that movie to....
But of course its not going to make sense at some scenes because its a movie.

&& if you were listening...
When Kale && Ashley jump into the pool....
Kale tells Ashley to run in her house && go make sure that the cops come && that she stays with them! Dont be stupid.....

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Chris
April 15, 2007 at 23:33

As I walked out of the theatre, i was convinced that it was a pretty good movie. However, as i began to think of certain scenes of the movie, i wondered how it happened. For instance, when the guy attacked kales mother, he was over kales house in like a minute, so how did he have time to tie her up in the basement? And, how did ronnie get out of the house? And where did the girl go after they jumped off the roof into the pool? back to bed? Furthermore, the neighbor was trying to kill that club girl and next thing we know she walks out of the house and drives away? OK! and why would a car just somehow be stopped in the middle of the road and who waits till the last second to move out of the way. Also, who just changes and does everything in their house with the blinds open, SERIOUSLY! Lastly, in the beginning, the lady says that if he unplugs his monitor thing, then the police would come right away. However, when the power went out when he was upstairs in his room. What happend to the cops?

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