Movie Review for Disturbia

Summary: After his father's death, Kale becomes sullen, withdrawn, and troubled -- so much so that he finds himself under a court-ordered sentence of house arrest. His mother, Julie, works night and day to support herself and her son, only to be met with indifference and lethargy. The walls of his house begin to close in on Kale. He becomes a voyeur as his interests turn outside the windows of his suburban home towards those of his neighbors, one of which Kale begins to suspect is a serial killer. But, are his suspicions merely the product of cabin fever and his overactive imagination?

                         Reviews of Disturbia
By Kevin Carr of 7M Pictures (8/0)
            as an homage to old-fashioned suspense films, you could do a lot worse

By Mike McGranaghan of Aisle Seat (8/0)
            Obviously, nothing is going to compare to Rear Window, but Disturbia is neverth...

By Brian Webster of Apollo Guide (8/0)
            A good old fashioned tension-laden thrill ride that's as satisfying for an old Hitchcock fan as i...

By Phil Villarreal of Arizona Daily Star (8/0)
            "Disturbia" is like "Rear Window," only if "Rear Window" had been written and directed by morons ...

By Philip Martin of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (8/0)
            ...what the director gets right - very right in the move's first two acts - is the ways kids rela...

By David Germain of Associated Press (8/0)
            Part of the filmmakers' point is that any old nutcase might be lurking behind the drawn curtains ...

                         Reviews of Disturbia
By Steve Murray of Atlanta Journal-Constitution (8/0)
            A lot better than you'd expect from the 'Rear Window Jr.' plotline.

By Marjorie Baumgarten of Austin Chronicle (8/0)
            Ultimately seems like something of a missed opportunity.

By Wesley Morris of Boston Globe (8/0)
            The nominal thrills hit our heads like Acme anvils.

By Fred Topel of Can Magazine (8/0)
            May not make kids rent Rear Window but it's still better than the Christopher Reeve remake where ...

By Sean O'Connell of Charlotte Weekly (8/0)
            Would sag without LaBeouf, carrying his first movie and making credible connections with each co-...

By Michael Wilmington of Chicago Tribune (8/0)
            Morse, a fine actor with a simmering presence, is generally wasted.

                         Reviews of Disturbia
By Peter Rainer of Christian Science Monitor (8/0)
            [The main characters] come across as tremendously industrious and likable. They know that, for al...

By Joshua Tyler of CinemaBlend.com (8/0)
            It's like someone took The Burbs and cross-bred it with the career of Freddie Prinze Jr.

By Scott Weinberg of Cinematical (8/0)
            Slickly shot, generally well-acted, and entirely, predictably conventional from stem to stern.

By Mark Palermo of Coast (Halifax, Nova Scotia) (8/0)
            It hasn't the openness to find a perspective on teenage life.

By Jeffrey M. Anderson of Combustible Celluloid (8/0)
            When the killer shows his hand, the film deteriorates into a typical slasher, complete with jerky...

By Edward Douglas of ComingSoon.net (8/0)
            Mixes intense thrills with humor and romance ... a thoroughly entertaining experience likely to e...

                         Reviews of Disturbia
By Garth Franklin of Dark Horizons (8/0)
            Whilst it plays it safe and conventional in every way - it still somehow manages to entertain and...

By Michael Booth of Denver Post (8/0)
            Disturbia will have young people on the edge of their seat, cringing and thinking at the same tim...

By Robert Denerstein of Denver Rocky Mountain News (8/0)
            Reasonably smart and sometimes funny -- right up until the end, when it sells out its intelligenc...

By Simon Glickman of E! Online (8/0)
            ...pure popcorn pleasure.

By Emanuel Levy of EmanuelLevy.Com (8/0)
            A young hip hero, well played by up-and-coming star Shia LaBeouf, and clever use of new technolog...

By Vince Koehler of Entertainment Spectrum (8/0)
            Disturbia is a pot luck of comedy, romance & suspense that offers a little something for everyone...

                         Reviews of Disturbia
By Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly (8/0)
            If it's possible to be a rip-off with wit, Disturbia qualifies.

By Eric D. Snider of EricDSnider.com (8/0)
            If Alfred Hitchcock were alive today, and if he wanted to remake one of his own films for an MTV ...

By Frank Lovece of Film Journal International (8/0)
            This slick and suspenseful story about the killer next door keeps you going as long as you don't ...

By Zack Haddad of Film Threat (8/0)
            If you are into suspense films and you don’t mind predicting the ending very early on, then go ch...

By Joel Meares of filmcritic.com (8/0)
            It's no Rear Window; but it's a slick update

By Joel Meares of filmcritic.com (8/0)
            ...ultimately transcends the doubts one might have going in and gets done what it sets out to do.

                         Reviews of Disturbia
By Victoria Alexander of FilmsInReview.com (8/0)
            Who is behind the rise of LaBeouf? Didn’t anyone learn anything from the stardom-forced-on-us deb...

By Brett Buckalew of FilmStew.com (8/0)
            Like those gleeful, inner-child-pleasing pulp-horror rides that Steven Spielberg and Joe Dante pe...

By MaryAnn Johanson of Flick Filosopher (8/0)
            Rear Window redone for a more paranoid age, an age that embraces its paranoia as The New Normal, ...

By Bill Clark of FromTheBalcony (8/0)
            With a new gore fest being released on a near-weekly basis these days, it's nice to see a thrille...

By Jeffrey Lyles of Gazette (MD) (8/0)
            From its riveting beginning until its edge of your seat conclusion, 'Disturbia' manages to breath...

By Jeffrey Lyles of Gazette (MD) (8/0)
            From its riveting beginning until its edge of your seat conclusion, 'Disturbia' manages to breath...

                         Reviews of Disturbia
By Michael W. Phillips, Jr. of Goatdog's Movies (8/0)
            A smart, efficient little thriller that wears its heredity proudly.

By Eric Lurio of Greenwich Village Gazette (8/0)
             D. J. Caruso and writers Christopher B. Landon and Carl Ellsworth have indeed ripped off Hitchco...

By Peter Canavese of Groucho Reviews (8/0)
            Fails on the scores of credibility and originality, but since it's nearly as thrilling as it is u...

By John DeFore of Hollywood Reporter (8/0)
            Rear Window meets the iTunes era in fun, slick suspense pic.

By John DeFore of Hollywood Reporter (8/0)
            ...fun, slick suspense pic.

By Amy Biancolli of Houston Chronicle (8/0)
            Despite the foolishness, and despite the patent knockoffs of Rear Window and American Beauty, Dis...

                         Reviews of Disturbia
By Steve Rhodes of Internet Reviews (8/0)
            The director takes a script laced with one obvious moment after another and manages to make a pre...

By Kevin Williamson of Jam! Movies (8/0)
            LeBeouf makes for a likeable, ankle-bracelet-saddled sleuth, while Caruso confidently ratchets th...

By Andrea Chase of Killer Movie Reviews (8/0)
            Writers Christopher B. Landon and Carl Ellsworth (RED EYE), and director D. J. Caruso have avoide...

By Prairie Miller of Long Island Press (8/0)
            Disturbia is meant to infuse the suburban veneer of tranquility with an undercurrent of lurking m...

By Bob Strauss of Los Angeles Daily News (8/0)
            A well-acted little teenage thriller that takes good advantage of visual premises and common mode...

By Mark Dujsik of Mark Reviews Movies (8/0)
            Works well enough -- not enough to ignore the intellectual robbery, but enough to be a derivative...

                         Reviews of Disturbia
By Pete Hammond of Maxim (8/0)
            A blockbuster of suspense, a scorching nail-biter of a movie that will have you jumping out of yo...

By Matt Pais of Metromix.com (8/0)
            Guaranteed to get your inner high-schooler excited for the end of the semester.

By Mack Bates of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (8/0)
            In addition to being a solid thriller, Disturbia is also a scathing indictment of life in suburbi...

By Ken Hanke of Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) (8/0)
            Assuming that reasonably competent mediocrity was the goal here, Caruso and company have succeede...

By Frank Ochieng of Movie Eye (8/0)
            Suitably giddy with its horror-movie platitudes aimed at mocking the facade of suburban hysteria....

By Frank Ochieng of Movie Eye (7/1)
            Suitably giddy with its horror-movie platitudes aimed at mocking the facade of suburban hysteria....

                         Reviews of Disturbia
By Kevin A. Ranson of MovieCrypt.com (8/0)
            Okay, so DreamWorks has remade Rear Window with teens, but could it actually be good? Welcome bac...

By Kurt Loder of MTV (8/0)
            LaBeouf, a soulful-eyed wiseguy with a complex emotional repertoire, keeps the movie interesting ...

By David Edelstein of New York Magazine (8/0)
            One way you know that D.J. Caruso is a resourceful director is that he scares you silly with a mi...

By Lou Lumenick of New York Post (8/0)
            ...overall this ultra-predictable thriller doesn't live up to the hype.

By A. O. Scott of New York Times (8/0)
            There are no big surprises, but the jumps and jolts are well timed and the overall mood is at onc...

By Jeffrey Westhoff of Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL) (8/0)
            Disturbia slowly builds from suspense to shocks at the cost of very few brain cells.

                         Reviews of Disturbia
By Brian Orndorf of OhmyNews.com (7/1)
            Was Freddy Krueger on vacation? Michael Myers not taking calls? Part of the supposed "fun" of Dis...

By Frank Swietek of One Guy's Opinion (8/0)
            Until the final reels it's actually a fairly nifty little thriller...Unfortunately, it goes awry ...

By Tasha Robinson of Onion AV Club (8/0)
            It eventually evolves into a credible thriller, one pointedly rather than coincidentally embedded...

By John Thomason of Orlando Weekly (8/0)
            A pre-Scream horror film, wearily trudging through all the clichéd genre tropes Wes Craven gleefu...

By Dennis Schwartz of Ozus' World Movie Reviews (8/0)
            It never manages to be disturbing in an intelligent psychological sense; it opts instead for B-fi...

By Tyler Hanley of Palo Alto Weekly (8/0)
            Rear Window gets a facelift for the iPod generation.

                         Reviews of Disturbia
By Cynthia Fuchs of PopMatters (8/0)
            Teetering between weirdly mesmerizing and inexplicably clumsy, D.J. Caruso's film offers a worthy...

By Linda Cook of Quad City Times (Davenport, IA) (8/0)
            It's not as classy as its cinematic great-grandfather, "Rear Window."Still, "Disturbia" is an ent...

By Linda Cook of Quad City Times (Davenport, IA) (8/0)
            It's not as classy as its cinematic great-grandfather, "Rear Window."Still, "Disturbia" is an ent...

By Karina Montgomery of rec.arts.movies.reviews (8/0)
            Get some friends and some popcorn and settle in for a fun diversion that manages to defeat its fe...

By Mark Pfeiffer of Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema (8/0)
            With the burden of inevitable comparisons to Hitchcock's masterpiece upon it, Disturbia carves ou...

By Timothy Knight of Reel.com (8/0)
            By and large, the characters in Disturbia do all the dumb, reckless things we've come to expect -...

                         Reviews of Disturbia
By Robin Clifford of Reeling Reviews (8/0)
            Disturbia is a decent entry in the killer thriller genre that will appeal to teens and beyond.

By Betty Jo Tucker of ReelTalk Movie Reviews (8/0)
            'Disturbia' is a tight, suspenseful, well-acted thriller.

By James Berardinelli of ReelViews (8/0)
            ...a nice little mystery thriller that takes a wrong turn on the way to its climax and morphs int...

By Peter Travers of Rolling Stone (8/0)
            Cool stuff. Cool movie.

By Jim Lane of Sacramento News & Review (8/0)
            ...slick and well-constructed (if predictable)...

By Sean Means of Salt Lake Tribune (8/0)
            LaBeouf and Roemer have a frisky chemistry, and the always-reliable Morse is a delicious devil.

                         Reviews of Disturbia
By Larry Ratliff of San Antonio Express-News (8/0)
            Caruso ... almost lets this one wander out of control in horror mode near the end. He reins it b...

By Jean Lowerison of San Diego Metropolitan (8/0)
            Don't waste your time with this mediocre imitation. Rent the original.

By David Elliott of San Diego Union-Tribune (8/0)
            If you're going to remake (or salute) a Hitchcock classic, it's fine to start off like Disturbia....

By Ruthe Stein of San Francisco Chronicle (8/0)
            ...an eminently watchable thriller with built-in appeal to teens.

By Sean McBride of Sean the Movie Guy (8/0)
            far deeper that you might expect from a typical teen drama.

By Sean Axmaker of Seattle Post-Intelligencer (8/0)
            That dynamic of alienated teens versus the icily assured adult... brings a defining edge to the o...

                         Reviews of Disturbia
By Moira MacDonald of Seattle Times (8/0)
            For the most part a taut, careful thriller that emphasizes suspense over blood and gore.

By Rich Cline of Shadows on the Wall (7/0)
            Even though the story goes bonkers at the end, this teen thriller keeps us entertained--and on th...

By Nick Schager of Slant Magazine (8/0)
            Disturbia's reworking of Rear Window for the YouTube generation is pretty nifty, drenching its ta...

By Phoebe Flowers of South Florida Sun-Sentinel (8/0)
            Not high art, but it serves its purpose.

By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat of Spirituality and Practice (8/0)
            A suspense thriller that switches gears far too many times mixing humor and horror.

By Nick Rogers of State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) (8/0)
            If not perfection, "Disturbia" achieves something more than most modern thrillers - the right to ...

                         Reviews of Disturbia
By Angela Baldassarre of Sympatico.ca (7/1)
            Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window" is refreshingly renewed with teen-infused funky energy in D.J. C...

By Dustin Putman of TheMovieBoy.com (8/0)
            John Hughes meets Alfred Hitchcock meets the 21st century in Disturbia, an adeptly crafted if not...

By Joshua Rothkopf of Time Out New York (8/0)
            Closing on a surprisingly prudish, prosurveillance note, you don’t have to wonder if lessons have...

By Tony Medley of tonymedley.com (8/0)
            The last half more than makes up for what I thought was a draggy first half. I hesitate to call i...

By Peter Howell of Toronto Star (8/0)
            While Disturbia does nothing to advance or honour Hitchcock, the movie succeeds on its modest ter...

By Maitland McDonagh of TV Guide's Movie Guide (8/0)
            Director D.J. Caruso's teen-friendly spin on Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window does so many things r...

                         Reviews of Disturbia
By Brian Tallerico of UnderGround Online (8/0)
            Disturbia stands above most of its genre neighbors by realizing that it's the minutes that come b...

By Urban Cinefile Critics of Urban Cinefile (8/0)
            This by-the-numbers teen thriller is so formulaic that it makes a good date movie. You can predic...

By Claudia Puig of USA Today (8/0)
            ...a smart and well-acted teen thriller that serves up some lively scares.

By Justin Chang of Variety (8/0)
            A modest but squirmingly fun suspenser that brings Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window into the era of...

By Steve Crum of Video-Reviewmaster.com (8/0)
            ...An involving and clever redo of Hitch's original that elicits its own suspenseful set pieces.

By Willie Waffle of WaffleMovies.com (8/0)
            Some might think tackling the subject of an Alfred Hitchcock movie would be blasphemous, but ever...

                         Reviews of Disturbia
By Susan Granger of www.susangranger.com (8/0)
            Tense and terrifying, the mystery morphs into a violent psycho-slasher-thriller.

By John Beifuss of Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) (3/5) Login Required (Login Required)
            This teen 'Rear Window' apparently is functioning as a suitable My First Horror Film for the youn...

By Mary F. Pols of Contra Costa Times (3/5) Login Required (Login Required)
            Won't go down in history for its artistry, but it's an entertaining movie with a sense of humor a...

By Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) of St. Paul Pioneer Press (4/5) Login Required (Login Required)
            A sneak-up-and-touch-you-on-the-shoulder movie, rather than a smash-you-in-the-face-with-an-anvil...

By Randy Cordova of Arizona Republic (7/1) No reference
            Director D.J. Caruso takes a lot of time to develop the characters. That works to the film's adva...

By Christopher Smith of Bangor Daily News (Maine) (7/1) No reference
            Asks what a teenage boy is to do when he's been placed under house arrest for assaulting a teache...

                         Reviews of Disturbia
By Annlee Ellingson of Boxoffice Magazine (4/4) No reference
            The film is likewise witty and intelligent -- that is, until the final act, when it eschews the t...

By Devin Faraci of CHUD (7/1) No reference
            Disturbia isn't your first choice this weekend if you're in your 20s or older, but for the crowd ...

By Jeff Vice of Deseret News, Salt Lake City (7/1) No reference
            This really is LaBeouf's vehicle, and he proves to be an appealing star presence.

By Terry Lawson of Detroit Free Press (3/5) No reference
            A one-dimensional thriller, albeit one more stylish than the ones churned out for the older teen-...

By Donald Munro of Fresno Bee (7/1) No reference
            LaBeouf is a likable and easygoing personality, but he easily turns smug and artificial on screen...

By James Sanford of Kalamazoo Gazette (7/1) No reference
            A mash-up of Dawson's Creek and The Conversation. Unfortunately, the movie begins losing its grip...

                         Reviews of Disturbia
By Loey Lockerby of Kansas City Star (3/5) No reference
            Presents itself as an adolescent variation on Rear Window, updated with modern technology and ste...

By John Larsen of Light Views (7/1) No reference
            Disturbia features an extremely likable protagonist in Shia LaBeouf...

By Nell Minow of Movie Mom at Yahoo! Movies (7/1) No reference
            Crisp performances, a creepy bad guy, absorbing plot twists, capable direction, and a script that...

By Gary Thompson of Philadelphia Daily News (7/1) No reference
            Unoriginal but still effective, and shows anew how well-suited themes of voyeurism (we all like t...

By James Kendrick of Q Network Film Desk (7/1) No reference
            If Disturbia is remembered ten years from now, it probably won't be because of its standing as a ...

By Carla Meyer of Sacramento Bee (7/1) No reference
            Disturbia seems unsure whether to be a creepy thriller, a drama or a coming-of-age comedy. What's...

                         Reviews of Disturbia
By Harvey S. Karten of Compuserve (7/1) Not Reachable
            The picture is as bland as its star.

Movie Distributors
Paramount Pictures

Production Companies
The Montecito Picture Company

Movie Studios
DreamWorks SKG