Surprised I liked it so much

Rating: 8/10 (1 October 2007)

SPOILERS CONTAINED THEREIN:
I usually avoid teen themed movies like the plague, but seeing how I heard this movie compared to The 'Burbs with Tom Hanks (only not a comedy) I had to at least check it out. It started off great, building the audiences care for Kale and his father, and then abruptly killing his father. Kale becomes a recluse, and attacks his teacher when the man mentions his father, which I believe was a completely justified action given Kale's strong connection with his father and presence when he was dead... The end of the death scene proved forever and all time Shia's acting skill, because when he sees his dad's dead body his expression conveys the fact that he's dead with no need to show the body at all, that takes skill...
Short hand, Kale spies on people, one particularly hot chick is his focus for a while, but later he turns into a sleuth trying to catch a killer Kale is a nonconformist, that fact likely added to my liking the film...
But the biggest factor was the lack of ANY LAME PLOT TWISTS... This movie stuck to some standard conventions that work, sure the movie has plenty wrong with it, but for once I didn't have to worry about whodunnit or if Kale was actually crazy... straight-forward, and that actually added to the suspense...
So one hot chick and a murder mystery later I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the film, it was very effective...