Movie Review: Disturbia

This is definitely one of those movies that from appearances, I generally don't like. When I found out that it was a update of the Hitchcock classic Rear Window, that intrigued me a bit. With Rear Window being one of my favorites, I decided that it might be O.K. to check out with Eric and Lauren Murrell. I can't say I was disappointed.

Of course with any update of a classic, they always adjust some of the storyline to fit the current culture and era.With Shia LaBeauf playing Kale, a troubled teenager sentenced to house arrest after assaulting his Spanish teacher in class. This sets up Kale to a situation similar to Jimmy Stewart in the original, who played a photographer sidelined by an injury. After a while, Kale goes stir crazy and begins to take notice of the world around him, through the use of a pair of binoculars. After noticing and then befriending his new attractive neighbor Amanda, the stage is set for this classic story to play out. Reports of a missing girl on the news catches Kale's ear. He's especially interested when he notices that his mysteriously quiet neighbor, Mr. Turner, drives a car matching the news' description, down to the dent in the fender. Could he be the killer?

I won't belabor the point or give away the ending. Disturbia does take a big jump off the Rear Window storyline, solidifying the fact that this was "loosely based" on the original. It's suspenseful, funny, and and for the most part, pretty well done. I think I'd see it again, at least to catch some of the things I missed in the first viewing.