Disturbia (2007)
Directed by D.J. Caruso
Kale has a life most teenagers would envy. He spends his days endlessly playing video games, surfing the net, eating junk food and watching cable. He has complete free reign of the house, and a beautiful young hottie named Ashley has just moved in next door. There’s only one problem—he’s not allowed to leave the house. Kale’s under court-ordered house arrest for three months, and if he takes one step beyond a 100-foot perimeter of the house, his next confinement will be in a real prison.
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Having watched a number of martial arts and horror films recently, I have sadly been exposed to both, albeit in the (perhaps) excusable context of old school grindhouse flicks, so by the time yours truly arrived at a screening for the new Rear Window ripoff -- excuse me, homage -- Disturbia I'd all but completely lost patience for either telegraphed punches or teenagers with too much time and too little sense.Unfortunately, Disturbia stars a teenager -- Shia LeBeouf -- who seems to have no shortage whatsoever of good sense, so the only mystery that remains in this catalogue of fright-film clich?s is why he accepted the role.
In a modern reworking of Rear Window , troubled teenager Kale (Shia LaBeouf) blames himself for his father's death; his behavior lands him under house arrest for the summer.
Resembling, without copying, the voyeuristic storyline of Hitchcockâs Rear Window, Disturbia also brings to mind other techno-thrillers like Coppolaâs The Conversation or fear-of-neighbors comedies like Joe Danteâs The âburbs.
A contemporary remake of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, the film is likewise witty and intelligent — that is, until the final act, when it eschews the tension of an unreliable point of view for modern horror elements.
" Disturbia " is a low-cal version of " Rear Window ."
The teen thriller "Disturbia," in which a housebound voyeur stumbles upon a possible murderer across the way, is basically an uncredited remake of the 1954 Alfred Hitchcock classic "Rear Window" (which was in turn based on a 1942 Cornell Woolrich story).
That you may find its supposed take on suburbia far less disturbing (despite its title) than Joe Dante’s The ‘Burbs (1989) is another matter.
Besides, the movie has way more in common, in terms of actual execution, with 1984’s Body Double and 1989’s The ‘burbs than anything else.
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.
Resembling, without copying, the voyeuristic storyline of Hitchcockâs Rear Window, Disturbia also brings to mind other techno-thrillers like Coppolaâs The Conversation or fear-of-neighbors comedies like Joe Danteâs The âburbs.
Besides, the movie has way more in common, in terms of actual execution, with 1984’s Body Double and 1989’s The ‘burbs than anything else.
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Director D.J. Caruso ( Taking Lives ) patiently builds suspense, but when the killer shows his hand, the film deteriorates into a typical slasher, complete with jerky angles, blurry footage and ridiculous, near-supernatural chases.
Director D.J. Caruso ("Two for the Money," "Taking Lives," "The Salton Sea") is searching for a mixture of wacky teen skepticism and taught suspense machinations.
Who isn't disturbed by the prospect of D.J. Caruso ( Taking Lives !) helming a Rear Window rip-off for the MySpace generation?
Director D.J. Caruso, who has helmed forgettable fare such as Taking Lives and Two for the Money, strikes all the right keys as the picture makes its transition from comedy to romance to thriller.
Writers Christopher Landon and Carl Ellsworth and director D.J. Caruso (Taking Lives) take the time to develop the characters (with the exception of Ashley, who comes off as a rather one-dimensional fantasy girl).
Caruso’s slide began with the predictable 2004 Angelina Jolie serial-killer sex thriller Taking Lives; the descent quickens with this Rear Window redux that lacks the good grace to acknowledge its source.
David Morse, as Mr. Turner, may be the best villain since Anthony Hopkins played Hannibal Lector in "The Silence of the Lambs."
It's in the collision and its aftermath that director D.J. Caruso (The Salton Sea) distances the film from other teen scream fare.
Director D.J. Caruso ("Two for the Money," "Taking Lives," "The Salton Sea") is searching for a mixture of wacky teen skepticism and taught suspense machinations.
Directed by D.J. Caruso, who has yet to deliver on the promise of his noirish 2002 debut, "The Salton Sea," "Disturbia" opens with a horrific collision that kills the young protagonist's father.
What happened to D.J. Caruso, the promising director who debuted with the little-seen The Salton Sea? Sure, his 2002 film shambled through its noirish paces, but its mournful saxophone riffs interwove into an atmospheric narrative fugue.
While director D.J. Caruso (The Salton Sea) has obviously taken elements from Hitchcock’s masterpiece, Disturbia is hardly a remake.
(OK, Caruso's Taking Lives is equally forgettable, but I'm a big fan of The Salton Sea , plus I found Two for the Money to be more entertaining than most folks did.)
The sequence involving Kale's friend Ronnie sneaking into Mr Turner's garage to try to uncover a body, relayed via a camcorder, is unsettling and scary in a way that evokes The Blair Witch Project.
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Director D.J. Caruso ("Two for the Money," "Taking Lives," "The Salton Sea") is searching for a mixture of wacky teen skepticism and taught suspense machinations.
Director D.J. Caruso, who has helmed forgettable fare such as Taking Lives and Two for the Money, strikes all the right keys as the picture makes its transition from comedy to romance to thriller.
Director D.J. Caruso ("Salton Sea"/"Two for the Money'') unsuccessfully reworks Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954) as a modern-day adolescent thriller.
(OK, Caruso's Taking Lives is equally forgettable, but I'm a big fan of The Salton Sea , plus I found Two for the Money to be more entertaining than most folks did.)
Director D.J. Caruso did not earn suspension of disbelief when he directed the contrived, hackneyed "Two for the Money."
Simple and direct like the 2005 airplane thriller “ Red Eye ,” “Disturbia” doesn’t pretend to be anything other than what it is, and thank goodness for that.
This would be much more easily accomplished if writers Christopher B. Landon and Carl Ellsworth (who wrote the invigorating "Red Eye," making this miss a huge question mark) invested more into ratcheting up Kale's frustrations and stagnancy.
The script was co-written by Carl Ellsworth, who also co-wrote "Red Eye," a film that had similar third-act problems.
The screenplay, which comes courtesy of Chris Landon (Another Day in Paradise) and Carl Ellsworth (Red Eye), is a half-baked amalgam of back-story silliness, first-act filler and occurrences that could be (charitably) described as paint-by-numbers.