Disturbia

Plot synopsis:
The film begins with a teenage boy and father fishing together. Kale Brecht (Shia LaBeouf) and his father, Daniel (Matt Craven), are involved in a car accident while returning from their fishing trip, which takes Daniel's life. A year passes in which Kale remains in a consistent state of melancholy and lifelessness. One day near the end of the school year, he is reprimanded by his Spanish teacher, Señor Gutierrez (Rene Rivera) for sleeping during class. When the teacher goes on to ask Kale what his father would think if he could see him now, Kale punches him in the face and proceeds to attack him. For this assault, which under normal circumstances could lead to a year in a juvenile detention center, he is sentenced by a sympathetic judge (Charles Carroll) to a three-month house arrest period with an ankle monitor and a proximity sensor, which prohibit him from roaming beyond the boundaries of his house and yard. He then learns that one of the police officers monitoring him is the teacher's arrogant cousin (Jose Pablo Cantillo), who takes delight in humiliating and embarrassing Kale in front of others, such as one occasion where he is forced to the ground after accidentally going past the limits of the yard, while chasing a group of boys that play a prank on him.Initially, he satiates his boredom by playing video games, but shortly after, his mother, Julie Brecht (Carrie-Anne Moss), cancels his subscriptions to the iTunes Music Store and Xbox Live, as well as cutting the power cord of his television, to force him to help around the house more. His boredom leads him to spy upon the surrounding neighborhood. One night, Kale becomes suspicious of his neighbor, Robert Turner (David Morse), who returns home in a 1967 Ford Mustang with a dented fender, matching the description given on a news report detailing an errant serial killer from Austin, Texas. Kale and his best friend Ronnie (Aaron Yoo) begin to view the girl next door, Ashley Carlson (Sarah Roemer). She is alerted to their spying when Ronnie's binoculars collide with the window; she subsequently decides to join them.Ronnie and Ashley dismiss Kale's suspicions initially, regarding them as based on circumstantial evidence. But they become gradually more involved when events inside Turner's house lead them to believe that he has been abducting women and murdering them there. Kale observes a woman Turner had picked up from a nightclub trying to escape the house in a panicked state. However she is later seen to leave. Thinking nothing is wrong, Ashley has a party, which Kale ruins by blasting Minnie Riperton music out his window. After Kale and Ashley have a conversation, they start making out. A scene then shows blood splattering on Turner's window, which both teens fail to see. Later, with Kale and Ashley watching, Turner is seen to drag a heavy bag to his garage, which Ashley claims to have seen blood on.Kale insists that Ronnie break into Turner's car to get his garage door opener to continue investigating. While Turner is at the store to buy a shovel, Ronnie retrieves the garage door opener code but unfortunately leaves his cell phone behind. That night, Kale keeps spying on Turner and leaves messages on Ronnie's cell phone. When Ronnie discovers that he left his cellphone in Turner's car, they attempt to get it back by opening the garage door. They do this successfully and Ronnie finds the bag and says he can see hair in addition to blood, leading the two of them to conclude that it really does contain a human body. The garage door is suddenly shut and Ronnie hides in the house while Kale attempts to rescue him, in the process, alerting the police to the breach of his house arrest. As the police arrive they search the house and discover that Ronnie does not seem to be anywhere inside. Checking the garage reveals that the bag contains the remains of a deer that Turner had hit on the interstate. Kale fears Ronnie is dead, but later discovers that he escaped, unharmed, fearing that he would be caught if he stayed and confessed to breaking into the house.Kale's mother Julie then goes across the street to talk to Turner herself, in hopes of steering him away from pressing charges. While she is there, Kale watches Ronnie's tape, which he left on the whole time he was making his escape from Turner's house. As Ronnie falls over in his haste in the tape, he accidentally filmed something hidden behind an air vent, so Kale zooms in to see what it is. It looks like a clear bag, with something in it. He zooms in further and sees what is clearly, the dead body of a girl. At the same moment, Turner knocks out Julie.Turner then moves into Kale's house and hits Ronnie on the head with an aluminum baseball bat. He then goes after Kale, who tries to signal the police by unplugging his proximity sensor, then runs outside to trigger his ankle monitor, but in the end fails to escape. Turner knocks him out and duct tapes his limbs together, as well as duct tapes his mouth shut. Turner then reveals his plan to frame Kale for the murder of his mother, due to grief over his father, and Ronnie, due to annoyance over going out with Ashley, before killing himself. As Turner has Kale writing a suicide letter to Ashley, she enters his bedroom, surprising the killer. Kale knocks Turner down, giving him and Ashley a chance to escape. They leap out of Kale's window, landing in Ashley's pool, also alerting the police of Kale's escape.Kale grabs a pair of garden shears and goes to search for his mother in Turner's house while Ashley goes to warn the police. In a room resembling an operating theatre, Kale finds credentials belonging to Turner's previous victim, the redheaded club girl, as well as a wig, suggesting Turner wore the wig and it was him Kale saw leaving the house. Officer Gutierrez arrives at the scene in the hope of charging Kale for breaking and entering, but he is killed when Turner sneaks up behind him and breaks his neck. Proceeding to the basement of the house, Kale falls through the floor and finds himself floating in a pool along with several dead bodies in various states of decay. He manages to climb out and finds his mother bound and gagged underneath the foundation. Turner suddenly appears from behind Julie and attempts to silence Kale and his mother. Julie stabs Turner in the leg, giving Kale time to kill Turner with the pair of gardening shears. As Kale and Julie exit the garage, the police arrive, and their ordeal with Turner is over.The next scene then shows Kale in his kitchen getting his ankle monitor removed and released from house arrest for "good behavior". It then shows Kale getting revenge on the neighborhood kids who put a bag of flaming dog feces on his porch, provoking him to leave the bounds of his house arrest while chasing them, and water-bombed him the night Ashley had her party. Previously in the movie, he had discovered them watching pornographic TV while looking out from his window. This time he is watching them with Ashley and calls their mother pretending to be with their satellite TV provider and says someone is currently watching adult movies in their room. Their mother rushes into their room and discovers the boys, securing Kale's revenge but then he says that he hopes for more as that was only his first strike.In the end Ashley and Kale begin making out on a sofa when they are interrupted by Ronnie, who is fine apart from a black eye, filming them with plans to put the video up on YouTube. Nevertheless, they do not show any sign of annoyance other than Kale doing a half hearted middle finger at Ronnie. The film ends with the song (One Man Wrecking Machine).

Tags: comedy, suspenseful, neo noir, murder, mystery, violence, revenge, prank

Review:
While it clearly tries way too hard to be hip, and the staggering amount of product placement serves only to distract, the story serves its purpose of allowing DJ Caruso to pull every trick out of the book, to very satisfying effect.Shia LaBeouf just about gets by on his charm, but also hints at his ability as an actor, which was firmly cemented through his stunning performance in 'A Guide To Recoginzing Your Saints' last year.
His character is nothing new, nor is his predicament, but he remains likable enough and it is hardly difficult to see why he is so taken by his new neighbour, played by the gorgeous Sarah Roemer.David Morse is appropriately creepy as the neighbourhood nut-job and Carrie Anne Moss, while given little to work with, is fine as LaBeouf's mother.The story unfolds well, and the red herrings serves to stretch the anticipation until the brutally tense finale.
After all the other rated PG13 thrillers that have come out in the past six years or so, DJ Caruso, who directed, proves that it has always been possible to make a good suspenseful thriller these days without all the gore.Shia Labeouf plays Kale Brecht.
Yes Disturbia is a blatant rip-off of that movie, but it is done with skill, and the acting by all, including Carrie Anne Moss as Kale's mother, was very good.
All the characters are likable, and David Morse's turn as the creepy Mr. Turner was well done as well.Disturbia may not be a great movie, but it is definitely one of the best PG13 thrillers in years.
Disturbia tells the story of a teenage boy named Kale who is sentenced to three months house arrest after punching a teacher in the face for making a comment about his recently deceased father.
Disturbia is loosely based off the 1954 Alfred Hitchcock classic Rear Window, but it is still a film all in itself, and it is the best thriller I've seen in a while.What makes this movie better than most horror movies that are released today is that is doesn't rely on excessive gore and gross out tactics to frighten you.
Shia LeBeouf was a likable protagonist, Carrie-Anne Moss did a great job in her role as the mother, and David Morse played an exceedingly ominous and creepy neighbor.
It had a new and fresh feeling with teens and it worked, despite how it seemed a bit more predictable than Rear Window, it still was pretty clever.Kale has had a rough year, while driving his father back from their father/son fishing trip, they get into a horrible fatal car accident, the Father dies, but Kale is alive trying to deal with the guilt of what happened.
Actually since every rom-com follows that exact plot sketch, they are more derivative than Disturbia to Rear Window because Caruso takes a premise, updates it, and makes it his own.Worried that this might end up as another lame duck attempt from the director, I didn't have too lofty of expectations.
Later I found that it is somewhat similar to Rear Window  the Hitchcock movie and is on the same lines; that made me go and see this movie.It is the story of a young boy Kale (Shia LaBeouf) who is sentenced to 3 months of house arrest and finds ways to peep through his windows in neighbors' lives  one, the recently moved neighbor girl Ashley (Sarah Roemer) and another middle aged guy Mr.Turner (David Morse) who our young boy and his friend Ronnie (Aaron Yo) suspects as a killer.
There are a couple of minor annoying scenes  like the love aspect (quite unnecessary I thought, but may be required for today's young audiences) and the usual cliché of thriller movies.
But overall the movie is entertaining.Shia LaBeouf is not a great actor, but does a decent job, so does the Sarah Roemer, Aaron Yo and David Morse.The camera work is excellent because it shows only that much which would make you eager to peep beyond the camera frame to see what is there  and that keeps you engaged.
The young cast give very good performances in what is much like a smart teen romantic comedy, and the opening scene is very well done.If you just enjoy sitting back and watching a thriller then you'll enjoy this, A LOT, but if you're a fussy nit-picker who think they are beyond teen thrillers, you better stay away.It's co-written by Carl Ellsworth who also wrote RED EYE and if you enjoyed that you should enjoy this.
The direction is good also.The music choices are cool too.Lot's of quirky humour and scary set pieces keep you entertained in a fun suspense-mystery-thriller."Rear What?" Disturbia - 9/10..
Really good version of Rear Window where a kid on house arrest realizes that his neighbor is a serial killer.While not scary as such (you can pretty much guess where this is going to go because it is by the numbers) this is a nice thrill ride that will keep you watching to the end.
If there is a flaw its that the film could almost be a well made TV movie, there really is no reason this needed to be seen on the big screen (other than the attention a genuinely good thriller would attract).
When Ashley sees Kale and his friend Ronnie (Aaron Yo) at the window, he tells out of the blue that their neighbor Robert Turner (David Morse) seems to be a wanted serial killer from Austin, Texas.
He's not the most inventive director out there but, and this is a compliment, "Disturbia" with someone more inventive directing, would have been another movieA worse movie.However, after some very disturbing (matches with the title) couple of scenes, Kale (Shia LaBeouf) finds himself in the situation of 'house arrest', which is not good for any teenager.
Then Ronnie (Aaron Yo) comes along, and they discover Ashley (model turned actress Sarah Roemer), and they sense something wrong about a neighbor (David Morse)And they start watching.Once this basic premise is established, things start flowing.
Also the sense of timeWhen a cop is walking down a hall and the killer is haunting someone, the cameras change several times, but they are both moving; because it is how it is and time in film shouldn't stop.Another thing that "Disturbia" excels at (and that's why it's better than good), which also has to do with false perception, is in not giving you what you want.
These characters decide to watch him with binoculars.Add dialog that was written by a 10th grader, dramatic music cues that feel more accidentally satirical than empathetic, and pretty weak art direction, and you've got a truly awful teen movie.The most interesting piece of dramatic tension, a relationship between Carrie-Anne Moss and David Morse, is a throw away.
The movie was simply overwhelmingly painful to watch.When the suspense did come ALL the way at the end, I was bored and restless to leave.
Very creepy.CINEMATOGRAPHY: A+ Rogier Stoffers -- For a guy that usually works in comedy, he did a great job with the angles and movements.DIRECTION: A D.J. Caruso -- More used to episodic work but made the transition to feature very nicely.ART and SET DECORATION: A + + Attention to detail was always there.SOUND: A Very nice and steady.The movie started out with an incredible action scene put together by stunt coordinator Manny Perry and SFX Coordinator Darrell Pritchett that seemed as if to set the pace for the entire film.
Let's remake Hitchcock's Rear Window, but THIS TIME we'll make it a teen make-out flick, make the killer not just a wife murderer but a serial killer, toss in lots of Porky's style gawking and drooling, jazz it up with cell phones and computers; and we'll have the perfect movie for today's audiences, which at Dreamworks they assume are idiots.
Somehow, though, there seem to be way too many 2007 movies where watching a pretty actress is the only thing the movie has going for it.REAR WINDOW was a classic 40 years ago and it still reaches an audience in 2007.
With LaBeouf's performance, it was as if he was a completely different person every five minutes with no sense of connection to the rest of the film.The dialog went from stale, to boring, to laughably bad to downright insulting of one's intelligence in no time flat.
All reality is thrown out the window as injuries that would kill any normal person become minor inconveniences, law enforcement procedure is tossed aside for happy Hollywood sentiment, and the final two minutes are so laughably bad that one has to wonder both who approved this film and what mafia Don it was that director D.J. Caruso insulted to land this gig.Perhaps my only lucky break of the night in seeing this was that the projectionist at the theater I was at screwed up the framing half-way through so that the boom mics were present in every shot in the last half of the film.
This is a modern-day teen version of the 1954 classic "Rear Window." To show you how far down the tubes Hollywood has gone since then, instead of a grown, mature adult spotting a criminal across the way, we now have a snotty teenager under house arrest for slugging his high school Spanish teacher.
It really gets carried away, story-wise, when more and more dramatic things occur and some stupid scenes like Kale and his buddy standing in front of a well-lit window spying.
The acting was great, Shia LaBeouf David Morse, Carrie Ann Moss, Sarah Roemer, and even Aaron Yoo as Ronnie the like able character.
I never saw Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window but even if I did I wouldn't judge this movie on questions like "Is this better than the original".
Rear Window is the epitome of Hitchcock's pure cinema, Disturbia differs in telling us what is going on at every moment, simply put, these types of films do not trust audience's enough today as opposed to the '50's.
Rear Window never left the apartment of it's protagonist, which created it's suspense because like the films protagonist, the audience could do nothing about the situation, except try to make people believe that a neighbor is committing a murder.
I would have enjoyed the film much more if Disturbia had been a complete remake of Rear Window, never leaving Kale's room, and us only seeing glimpses of the supposed murderer.
Shia LaBeouf seems to be a decent actor and Carrie-Anne Moss's mother character was one of the most realistic I've ever seen in this type of movie; she was neither an overbearing troll nor a doormat for her son.
All in all, I think the casting was done well and the actors all turned in decent performances, with David Morse's Turner standing out the most.Unlike the other review I just read, I don't think the pacing in this movie was all that good.
I guess if you're a seventeen year old male, you'll enjoy the 65% of the movie that is spent watching Kale's new female neighbor through binoculars, but to me it just seemed to slow down the film.
I think Disturbia would benefit from a few less minutes of swimming neighbors and Hostess products towers (you'll see what I mean when you watch the movie).I gave this movie a six because, despite what I said above and the constant presence of boom mics, this movie actually got my heart racing once or twice and the acting was quite good.
Disturbia disturbs suspense film fans Kale a teenager, loses his father in a horrifying accident on the trip back home after fishing together.
Like most of the teen movies, there are way too many shots of the "hot" girl next door doing Yoga, slow-mo swimming, sun bathing.David Morse's character was the only good thing to watch in this film.
I tend to think that Disturbia tried create a great suspenseful film like "Above Suspicion" but failed completely.
But, there is nothing remotely interesting about this flick and it's submerged in so much putrid banality that one cannot help but to think "hey, haven't I seen all of this before in another movie starring Tom Hanks?" And yet this film is about a hundred times more watered down and it is loaded with the kind of sickening, corny sentimentality that can only be found in the likes of a made for TV Lifetime special.
While Rear Window had you at the edge of your seat this film has you rolling your eyes thinking to yourself "how come no one I knew in High School acted like the characters on screen?
It always puzzles me when characters do that, it's like: "Oh our good friend was brutally murdered, and we were almost murdered too, but its the day after and near the end of the movie so lets pretend were not even thinking about that and just kiss each other and feel all well-adjusted and normal despite an unspeakable horrible ordeal" In short I would expect this for a low-budget B-movie direct to DVD bad movie, but a major studio relese?
With his cabin fever, Kale's imagination might get him into trouble when he begins to believe that his creepy neighbor Turner (David Morse) is a serial killer from Texas.(My Comment) The story was supposed to be a suspenseful thriller, but for the first hour, it moves at a very slow pace.
While it has a moment or so of entertainment, DISTURBIA is not a good film and shouldn't be seen by anyone who loves thrillers.
All in all, just watch rear window, if you want to see someone spying on people, only you also want to see a good movie at the same time..
Or I just look at the center of the screen at all times.)The kids might enjoy this, but if you want to show them what a GREAT suspense film looks like, rent them "Rear Window".(See http://imdb.com/title/tt0047396/) It's sexy and seriously disturbing.
With the police not believing him and his mother thinking he's just acting out, Kale enlists the help of his best friend Ronnie, and the new girl next door, Ashley, to further prove his suspicions.I'd been following the progress of this film since I first heard about it some months ago.
Yes. With a classic, slow-build, characters you actually care about (I was all for the relationship between Kale and Ashley) and a last act that will have you on the edge of your seat, "Disturbia" is definitely a film for fans of the genre to check out..
It takes all the things that made Rear Window a classic, adds in a modern twist and keeps the whole piece just different enough for Disturbia not to feel like a rip-off!
Bored, he turns to the window, where he discovers sexy new neighbour Ashley...and something more sinister in the form of 'Mr Turner' - the next door neighbour whom Kale comes to believe may be a Texan serial killer...Disturbia is brought to life by an excellent cast, who all perform excellently in their respective roles.
I liked everything about this movie, but when I think about it, the thing that surprised me the most was the cast, especially Shia LaBeouf.
I've seen this kind of thing before, in movies like REAR WINDOW, FRIGHT NIGHT, and others.
The movie itself is actually a remake of the Hitchcock classic "rear window" but it has definitely been modernized but in a fun way.The main character winds up under house arrest with a high tech sensor attached to his leg which literally doesn't allow him to be more than a few more feet from the house without there being serious consequences.
One day, one person might think it is great and another day another person might hate it.I guess this isn't really a bold statement since it could easily be applied to just about any movie, but it's what I've got today.My best recommendation would that anyone who finds the premise of this film interesting should really check out Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 masterpiece Rear Window.
Welcome to Disturbia, a cool thriller with big scares." Living under three months house arrest, Kale Brecht (Shia LaBeouf, Transformers)passes his days spying on the neighbors.
Shia LaBeouf turns in a terrific pulse pending performance, the cast also includes David Morse, Sarah Roemer and Carrie-Anne Moss in this film.
The film follows a teenager who is placed on house arrest and begins to spy on his neighbors, thinking one of them is a serial killer.7/10 Grade: B+ Studio: Paramount Pictures Starring: Shia LaBeouf, David Morse, Sarah Roemer, Carrie-Anne Moss Director: D.
However, add in the incredible acting of Shia LaBeouf, and the film easily jumps up into the "very solid" category.For a basic plot summary, "Disturbia" very loosely follows the premise of Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window".
While homebound, Kale enlists the help of friend Ronnie (Aaron Yoo) and new-to-town girlfriend Ashley (Sarah Roemer) to spy on the next-door-neighbor Mr. Turner (David Morse), who they believe to be a serial killer.As I mentioned in the opener, as a "thriller" alone this movie is passable.
I really liked this movie, I would say it's probably my favorite PG-13 horror film and one of the best thrillers of the last decade.For the negative side, it does take a while to get going, the main villain doesn't appear until about 30 minutes in.
A troubled teen called Kale Brecht (Shia LaBeuof)is living under house arrest and is convinced that his next door neighbor is a serial killer after spying on a girl that he likes.
I didn't expect much of this movie since it's been a while since I saw a good thriller (especially one from the last year) but I REALLY liked it.