Entertaining, with flaws

Rating: Null/10 (16 May 2010)

Okay, another Rear Window spin off.
I'm game. What Lies Beneath wasn't as convincing (apart from the horror scenario, which worked quite well), this is a modern teenage version.
First of all, any teacher who would file charges against a traumatized student after provoking him is a disgrace to the educational system, but hey, it's the premise of the house arrest, apparently the writer couldn't come up with a more plausible reason.
I can let that pass, though it irks.
What I cannot let pass is that he cannot fix the power cable of his TV - okay, I thought, he's technically challenged - strange, but it happens - BUT, as it later turns out, he's a tech geek who can tweak surveillance systems etc....major flaw there. Another construed premise for the neighborhood spying he does out of boredom...
The girl moving in next door is a bad actress, I won't even bother to look up her name. Shia LaBeouf is a very good actor, with subtleness and skill, maybe that even makes her disabilities more apparent. Her role wasn't the best thought through, either, but hey, this was never a film aimed for Oscars...
So, I was entertained, the pace was good, the love interest, the good buddy, the people of the neighborhood, the bad guy.
Everything predictable, but there were some scary and suspenseful moments.
What botched the movie was the change of pace at the end - suddenly it slows down, everything is happening in slow motion, and I'm sitting there saying Get on with it!! You're looking for your mother, why aren't you running and screaming?
I won't mention everything predictable because it WAS almost everything - as I said, that does not make the movie a bad movie, it's a new take on the subject, with good actors (save one...see above), but a flawed script and bad choice of pace at the end. Nice shock effects, but by then I was bored and impatient for the movie to end.
Nice film, the lead actor shines, speaks to the intended audience. I cannot help notice the flaws, doesn't mean I wasn't entertained.