great Rear Window vibe

Rating: 8/10 (9 March 2015)

While driving home from a fishing trip, Kale Brecht (Shia LaBeouf) gets into a car accident which kills his father. One year later, a despondent Kale punches his Spanish teacher and gets 3 months under house arrest. His mother Julie (Carrie-Anne Moss) takes away his video games. His best friend Ronnie (Aaron Yoo) is in Hawaii. With nothing to do, he starts spying on his sexy neighbor Ashley Carlson (Sarah Roemer). By the time Ronnie is back, Kale has mapped out his entire neighborhood. He notices suspicious things at Robert Turner (David Morse) next door. There are news reports of missing girls. Ronnie and Ashley join him in the stakeout.
I love the 'Rear Window' vibe which is one of my favorite movies. It's a different route to the same place. Shia has an easy charm about him. Aaron is a great slacker friend. Sarah Roemer has a friendly sexiness. The trio has good chemistry together. David Morse is creepy as hell and the scene in the car with Roemer is hair raising. The ending runs on a little too long. I would have prefer not to spend more time in Turner's underground dungeon. It feels heavy handed from a slasher movie which is different from the rest of the movie. If it stays in the Brecht house, there would have been a tight high intensity ending.