An amusing guilty pleasure.....Just don't think too much about it

Rating: 7/10 (22 April 2007)

I'm just going to lay everything out on the table. "Disturbia" is not original, nor is it very intelligent. The film contains plenty of clichés, and I'm sure any film scholar would have a field day pointing them out. But what can I say? I was entertained the whole way through. Whether I was laughing with the film or at the film, I was entertained. I wish I can give away the movie's copious clichés without spoiling it, but I can't. So if you're eager to check out the film, please don't read ahead. Cliché #1: Why is it that in movies, whenever a character is in extreme horror...their friends feel the need to toy with them? If I were these people, I'd get a new set of friends. In one scene, the main character Kale (Shia LeBuff, or however the hell you spell his name) asks his friend to invade his neighbor's (David Morse) house and bring a video camera with him to record any evidence of him hiding any corpses. From what Kale sees on camera, it appears that his friend has been captured by the neighbor and possibly killed, and the camera suddenly shuts off. We later find out that the friend is hiding in Kale's closet, and that it was all a joke. If my friend did something like that, I'd kill him myself! Only in the friggin' movies. Cliché # 2: In another scene, the neighbor comes into contact with Kale's love interest, who was stalking him in a hardware store. The filmmakers make it look like he's going to kill her, but does he? Of course not. We don't need to eliminate any characters who are substantial to the plot. Aside from those two clichés, there are plenty of false alarms and moments where the villain miraculously comes back to life. Of course there's plenty of scenes where the villain comes into contact with cops or Kale's parents, where the villain proves he's the nicest guy and they all fall for it. The film is predictable. There are very few surprises. In the film's pivotal scene, Morse appears to be killing someone and blood splatters all over his window. I knew right away that it would be found out later on that he was cutting up an animal. And I was absolutely right! I haven't seen Shia Lebuff in many movies, but judging from this movie he's not exactly an actor I'm dying to see in many future projects. Maybe it's just me. He has a certain smugness to him that I find slightly irritating. The female lead in the film is very sexy, and might be the reason why I enjoyed it overall...lol. So from a heterosexual man's perspective, let's just say you probably will keep your eyes open throughout the film....even if you're not terribly interested. And when does David Morse ever fail to play a magnificent villain? Even Carrie-Ann Moss steals the show in the few scenes she's in. It also makes me think, I might admire her more if I didn't always have to see her play dopey sci-fi characters. OK, if you read my review you probably find no reason to see the film. I don't blame you. Like I said, it's a guilty pleasure. It has every cliché in the book, but it makes a decent popcorn flick. I'm not saying the film will go down in history. God forbid it does.