Tittalating yet affective teen-focused thriller...

Rating: 6/10 (4 March 2009)

1st watched 2/27/2009  6 out of 10(Dir-D.J. Caruso): Tittalating yet affective teen-focused thriller with the newly christened big star, Shia Lebeouf. He's good enough to carry a movie despite his early goofball beginnings with his Disney channel comedy, "Even Stevens.(which I have to admit I liked) This movie is similar to other peeping tom movies where they see something they shouldn't but this one's a little more complex. Shia's character is on house arrest by punching his teacher after he made a comment about his recently deceased father. After his mom pulls the plug on his xbox, Itunes, and TV he runs out of things to do and starts spying on his neighbors. At first he just entices his hormones by watching a teasing neighbor girl, but then gets interested in a neighbor who appears to be doing questionable things.(like possibly killing a woman he brought home?) He ties his suspicions in with a killer he read about in the newspaper and starts believing this is him. Sarah Roemer is very flirtacious as Shea's lust, I mean love, interest and he also has an Asian friend to do some of his dirty work for him. This group of teens are fun to watch and you never really know if their inklings are true until near the end. Then, of course, you get the good old chase with the main psycho character at the end. Despite the movie's similarities to other movies of this type the movie is fresh and exciting to watch mainly because of the new talent and they play out their characters well. This is not a great movie, but a good one and enjoyable even for an old guy of 44 like me.(OK, maybe it's because I'm an old guy of 44??)