Disturbia

Disturbia has been getting some decent reviews in the media. So when I was given the chance to go catch a special screening tonite, I jumped at the opportunity.

The movie stars the golden boy of the season, Shia Labeouf (of the recent Transformers movie fame) as a kid going thru a rough patch and ends up undergoing house arrest with that thingamajig tied to his ankle to prevent him from leaving his house. To pass his time, he starts observing his neighbours closely, learning their habits and their secrets too. Of course, as with any Hollywood movie, there has to be the obligatory love interest and the act-cool asian sidekick. Thru his spying, he ends up suspecting that his neighbour is actually a serial murderer. The remainder of the movie is basically an edge-of-the-seat ride that ping pongs you between 'yes he's a murderer' to 'no he is not'.

The movie really follows the typical paranoid-thriller formula. You know, the sudden shocks with someone touching your shoulder or breaking through a door kinda cliches. But surprisingly, it all works. And it works very well. Despite knowing that these things were going to happen, the director still manages to catch me off guard and gives me a few shocks along the way. And the edge of the seat moments are really good - at moments, the tension is so tight I almost felt my blood vessels bursting.

So what makes this movie tick? I think I must give credit to Shia Labeouf. He really does a pretty credible job of acting (and not over-acting) his role. The supporting roles are also fleshed out nicely. The cliched asian side-kick was not too irritating and manages to draw some laughs, especially at the start with his 'kick-ass' spanish. And taking the role of Shia's mom is non other than the Matrix-woman, Carrie-Ann Moss. She looks so motherly and... fleshy... that it's kinda hard to imagine that this was the same woman in the Matrix. Last but not least, we have the suspicious neighbour, portrayed by David Morse. David who? Haha.. he has actually acted in many movies, but never really in the A-list roles. I remember him best as Jodie Foster's dad in CONTACT. He's pretty creepy in Disturbia.... keeps you guessing if he is really evil... or not...

Disturbia is a surprising hit for me. I thought that after The Simpsons Movie, there would be a slump of good movies. Don't miss this thriller. Highly recommended.