modern homage to Hitchcock

Rating: 6/10 (15 February 2007)

We saw this at a special preview screening.
This isn't a ripoff of "Rear Window" but it does pay tribute to it and to Hitchcock in general. David Morse is a great villain here and provides a great balance to the otherwise teenager-oriented feel of the movie. While not worthy of much critical discussion, it is good for pure entertainment value and has a healthy dose of good, old fashioned suspense.
***** spoiler warning: below is a partial synopsis of the movie; skip past it if you don't want to know anything that happens in the movie *****
Kale (Shia LeBouf) is placed under house arrest after punching his Spanish teacher in class. It's his third run-in with the law since his father's death in a car accident a year earlier.
While under house arrest, a new family moves in next door, some neighborhood kids cause him grief knowing that he can't leave the yard and he starts noticing little quirks about his neighbors he'd never seen before. There are news reports of a missing girl and an eye witness account of a car possibly used by the kidnapper.
He shares his voyeuristic discoveries with his friend Ronnie (Aaron Yoo) and when they get caught watching the new next door neighbor Ashley (Sarah Roemer) while she's swimming, she comes over. They show her some of their privacy invading observations including the fact that their backyard neighbor Turner (David Morse) drives a car that matches the description of the news report.
The suspense begins to thicken when the teenagers videotape Turner bringing home a woman from a club only to witness her frantically running through the house trying to get out and then everything goes dark in the house.
Turner catches Kale watching him through binoculars. Turner sends the kids a message through Ashley when he catches her following him around as a lookout for Kale and Ronnie as they break into Turner's car in his driveway to steal the garage door opener code so they can get into his house.
***** end of spoiler *****
The rest of the story I'll leave out...suffice to say that things aren't always what they seem.
If you pay close attention, you'll notice little nods to Hitchcock here and there. If you go to the movie for entertainment, you'll not be disappointed, but don't look for something of much substance.