Review #150: Disturbia (2007)

Cast/Notable Credits:
D.J.Caruso (Director): Taking Lives (2004), Eagle Eye (2008)

Shia LaBeouf (Kale): Transformers 1 (2007) & 2 (2009), Indy 4 (2008), Eagle Eye (2008), Constantine (2005), I, Robot (2004), Charlie’s Angels 2 (2003), Holes (2003)

Sarah Roemer (Ashley): The Grudge 2

Carrie-Ann Moss (Julie): The Matrix Trilogy, Red Planet (2000), Memento (2000), Fido (2006)

David Morse (Mr. Turner): The Rock (1996), Twelve Monkeys (1995), Contact (1997), The Green Mile (1999),

Aaron Yoo (Ronnie): Friday the 13th

Matt Craven (Daniel Brecht): Meatballs (1979), Jacob’s Ladder (1990), K2 (1991), A Few Good Men (1992), The Final Cut (1995), Déjà vu (2006)

Jose Pablo Cantillo (Officer Gutierrez): Crank (2006), Cleaner (2007)

Viola Davis (Det. Parker): Antwone Fisher (2002)

Elyse Mirto (Mrs. Carlson): Penny Dreadful (2006)

Trailer:

Plot:

While returning from a fishing trip a father and son (Kale) are involved in a car accident leaving the father dead. One year later Kale is experiencing problems as a high schooler. In his Spanish class, he falls asleep and is awakened by the teacher. They get in a dispute which leads to Kale punching the teacher in the face. If I knew how to speak Spanish, I would say, "Momma said knock you out!"

The teacher presses charges against Kale and he is given home detention by the judge. His probation officer places an ankle monitor is slapped on him and he is confined to his home for the summer. Kale cannot leave the 100 foot radius from the master monitoring device in his kitchen. If he does, the device goes off and alerts the local police. The officer who patrols the neighborhood frequently is Officer Gutierrez, the cousin of the teacher Kale struck.

During his confinement in his home, Kale has taken up an interesting hobby…spying on the neighborhood. Using binoculars and video equipment, Kale uses the upstairs bedrooms to spy on the unsuspecting neighbors.

A little bit into the summer, a good (and not so good…being stuck in home) thing for Kale happens. A smokin’ hot neighbor girl (Ashley) moves in next door. Eager to befriend her, Kale has some problems with his mobility (since he cannot leave the 100 ft radius) and cannot go over to meet her. In the end…the good lord comes through and Kale and Ashley becomes friends.

One late night Kale thinks an apparent murder involving his neighbor Mr. Turner and an unidentified woman takes place. Kale is temporarily distracted from the spying stakeout while walking Ashley home (or at least to the edge of his out of bounds area). When he returns to his room he catches a glimpse of the girl screaming and running around the house. Kale panics and accidentally sets off a camera flash and then cowers out of sight. The next thing he sees is her car driving away from Mr. Turner’s house.

The next day Mr. Turner pops up at Kale’s house and there is a serious tone of “I’m on to you” to Kale by Mr. Turner. Also a woman who looks like the lady pops up on the news as part of a series of missing women. Kale convinces Ashley and his friend Ronnie that Mr. Turner is somehow linked to the missing women. The three begin their own little Scooby Doo investigation as they snoop more into the series of missing women and Mr. Turner’s personal life, trying to link him to the case.

After compiling amounts of circumstantial evidence against Mr. Turner, they are convinced that he definitely has something to do with the strand of missing women. They start following him and snooping around his house until they eventually get caught by him…and the police.

When confronted by the Po-po, Kale does what a good little juvi should do…narc on his neighbor and rat him out on the murders. The police don’t believe the little felon, and blow off his story after a brief investigation into Mr. Turner. It also puts Kale in more hot water with the law.

Kale is trapped to the comforts of his home with a killer neighbor lurking in the distance. The mom and the police don’t believe his assumptions, and it’s only a matter of time before Mr. Turner comes after him and his friends.

Villain:

The villain in Disturbia is the creepy neighbor Mr. Robert Turner (played by David Morse). Mr. Turner is a multi-state serial killer, who just happens to live next door to Kale. He lures young attractive women back to his home and then “disposes” them at his pleasure.

Mr. Turner is a quiet man who keeps to himself (doesn’t want to attract attention), but has that evil aurora to him. David Morse does a great job portraying him in the movie.

Everyone has one of those creepy neighbor figures. Hell, maybe I’m one of those to my neighbors. Does it mean that I go around abducting young women to kill? No…or do I? Hmm.

Cast:

Shia LaBeouf plays the lead character Kale in Disturbia. About 50% of the time I like Shia’s characters in his movies. His characters tend to be the same type of person…kind of like the Alec Baldwin character…in all of his movies.

Basically, Shia plays the character of Shia…just with a different name. Usually he’s a rule pushing, smart *ss kid who tends to get hyperventilated when faced with fear. In Disturbia Shia played that role again, and for this time it worked for me.

Ashley, the smokin’ hot neighbor chick in the film is played by Sarah Roemer. She is definitely a little temptress in the film. She is always flirting and making sexual insinuations at Kale. Ashley’s character is written to be a fun loving, Tom-boy girl next door who everyone kid thinks he has a chance of hooking up with. If that’s the case, then Roemer (Pictured below) hit the nail on the head.

Aaron Yoo (Ronnie) is Kale’s crazy, fun loving, goofy friend in the film. His character is a little annoying at times as his “lack of seriousness” goes a little too far. Sometimes I even wanted to sock it to him. But who can hate on Yoo? He did after all sign on for the Friday the 13th remake.

Kale’s mom is played by the lovely Carrie-Ann Moss. MILF! Moss has virtually disappeared since the Matrix disaster…at least the last 1.5 films worth. Once the love flame of Neo, Moss has found herself off the Hollywood map for a while. She pops up in this film and is relatively minor in the grand scheme of things.

SFX/Gore:

There were a couple deaths in the movie, but it was more of a suspense thriller than a hack ‘em up film. It is something that should be expected from a story/remake off a Hitchcock film which was based off another book.

The special effects were pretty good and I thought the film didn’t go overboard in the use of the technology at hand. What I mean by that is, sometimes movies that use cell/camera phones, computers and other such technological equipment tend to…exaggerate of the capabilities of that equipment.

I thought Disturbia did a good job of using them. There wasn’t any “bouncing signals off the moon so I can hack into the government’s data base while pressing *75 on my cell phone” B.S. in it. The devices used all did relatively what they can do. Except for the ankle monitor thing. Somehow I doubt that the Po-po would show up that quick.

TNA:

Well let’s face the facts…Disturbia is rated PG-13…don’t get your hopes up for anything else. Disturbia features Sarah Roemer as its main piece of eye candy for the eager young men and offers the beauty and elegance of Carrie-Ann Moss (Pictured Below) for the more mature audience. Roemer does have several scenes in different two piece swimsuits as she makes use of her parent’s pool.

For the ladies…well hopefully you like the looks of Shia LaBeouf or Aaron Yoo or David Morse, because you don’t get much out of this category.

T.Gun’s Take:

I was pleasantly surprised with Disturbia. When I first heard of it, I automatically thought it would be awesome, and then the ratings board slapped it with a PG-13 rating. Bummer. Another good idea goes down the drain. Just in case you don’t know…I’m not a big fan of that rating grouped with my beloved horror genre.

After watching the flick I was actually pleased with it. It was shockingly a pretty good film that flew underneath the radar in my opinion. Shia had a pretty good year with the release of this and Transformers. Though Disturbia is not on the same level of Transformers, but does a good job of holding its own and isn’t too far off…considering the type of film it is.

Misc. Movie Trivia:
-Film opened on April 13, 2007 and made $80 million at the Box Office ($23 million opening weekend)
-Russian translation of Disturbia: Paranoia
-Based off the story, “It Had to be Murder” and Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window”
-♫ Disturbia ♫ is also a hit single from R&B artist Rhianna (Pictured Below)