Disturbia: Disturbingly Good

I used to hate Shia LaBeouf. I'm not sure why-- I think I had a vague feeling that he must have been handed his celebrity by nepotism or something. It was like he became famous a little too quick. I didn't see Disturbia during its first run because of this. But I was wrong -- it turns out that he made it on his own. And at some point during Transformers, he won me over. He's a likable protagonist, and I give him a lot of credit for changing my opinion of him with his performances.

Now to my review: "Disturbia" was a really good thriller. Our hero, Kale (LaBeouf), gets convicted for assaulting his teacher (justifiably, of course), and gets three months of house arrest. To keep him there, they give him a leg bracelet that beeps and contacts the cops if he crosses an invisible perimeter surrounding his house.

Of course, now that Kale can't leave the house, all sorts of interesting things start happening around the neighborhood. A beautiful girl moves in next door. Kids start harassing Kale with water balloons and flaming crap on his doorstep. And strange things start happening at his next door neighbor's house. In fact, he notices that the neighbor's car looks exactly like one being described on the news as belonging to a serial killer. Spurred by boredom and paranoia, Kale recruits his friend Ronnie and the new hottie next door to help him with some pretty extensive surveillance of the suspicious Mr. Turner.

The creepy Mr. Turner is played artfully by David Morse, soft-spoken and steely-eyed, but quirky enough that you don't know if he's really a bad guy or not until the reveal. Turner notices that the kids are stalking him, and he lets them know it. But that doesn't stop Kale. He pushes his friend Ronnie to sneak in Turner's house to find the dead body Kale thinks is there.

And here's where the movie gets interesting: it climaxes about two-thirds of the way through, and instead of resolving, keeps a steady plateau of excitement for at least a half an hour. And it employs great movie archetypes, too. "Disturbia" is essentially Hitchcock's Rear Window mixed with The Burbs (the Tom Hanks comedy about obsessing over creepy neighbors), spotted with chunks of The Blair Witch Project and The Silence of the Lambs. Now, don't get me wrong -- "Disturbia" is not as good as any of the above mentioned films. But it effectively uses bits and pieces of them to take the audience on a great, if familiar, ride.