I went into
Disturbia (Dreamworks, $29.98 retail) with reservations, I must admit. A large part of my hesitation was based on it's PG-13 rating, which literally screams "studio sell-out" especially for a horror film. And let's be honest, a little
Shia LaBeouf goes a long way.
What director
D.J. Caruso (
Two For The Money,
Taking Lives) ends up delivering is slasher-lite, or
Hitchcock for the teen set. We are relentlessly bombarded by shameless product placement, with Apple being the most egregious offender: iPods are flashed across the screen, and there's even a handy tutorial on how to log into your iTunes account. MTV rules the soundtrack which is fine in a movie like
Blades of Glory but this is supposed to be scary right? It's well over 40 minutes before something sinister happens, if you don't count the fantastic car accident at the beginning.
Not-so-lovable teen Kale (LaBeouf) is sentenced to house-arrest for slugging a teacher, an act of violence glamorized more than any
Eli Roth murder set-piece. Bored and deprived of his Xbox and iTunes (gasp!) he begins to spy on his neighbors, mostly the prerequisite blond hottie (
Sarah Roemer) next door. For reasons known only to pure male fantasy, she finds this juvie loser interesting and it isn't long before she joins him in late-night voyeurism sessions. Eventually they turn their attention to the creepy guy across the street, and are well rewarded by witnessing a brutal murder. Dude, that guy like, just killed a chick!
I want to say Disturbia is a bad movie: but it is well-acted and slickly lensed, with a few genuine shocks. What I actually hate is everything it stands for, soulless commercial filmmaking. But then again Hitchcock made commercial films.
# posted by André Salas @ 8/14/2007 02:29:00 PM
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