Disturbia DVD Review

"Disturbia" reviews

DVD

Disturbia

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2008-01-25 15:40:17

Provider

DVD Review

While the talent behind this teen thriller about a boy who becomes convinced his neighbour is a murderer may omit Rear Window's influence on the DVD - it's fingerprints are all over this assured thriller.

It may not be a match on Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 classic, but it's a solid entry on its own right. The set up takes longer in this version, and the action is no longer contained in one room, but Shia LaBeouf is a surprising able substitute for Jimmy Stewart.

Under house arrest after hitting a teacher (a neat touch), LaBeouf's Kale Brecht spends his summer spying on his neighbours before he begins to suspect the creepy man over the road (David Morse) of being a notorious serial killer. LaBeouf has the sort of easy going charm that Michael J Fox displayed in the 1980s, and makes the transition of bumbling geek to action hero effortlessly (a skill he used in Transformers).

As previously stated, it takes a while to get going, and the ending slightly drags, but it's good fun, and it's nice to see an update actually using its modern day setting to add something new to the material. X Box's, emails, video phones and iPods all bring something to the plot.

You get the usual DVD extras - fluffy featurettes, deleted scenes and outtakes - but the commentary with LaBeouf, director D.J. Caruso and actress Sarah Roemer has a lot of interesting tidbits including that LaBeouf is eating as much chicken as he can to bulk up for the Indiana Jones movie and that method actor Morse refused to speak to his young cast member during shooting.