Movie and Television Reviews

** Notice: I'm changing my review titles to Cinema Reviews from Movie Reviews in order to attract a more upscale demographic**

Suspecting senseless violence from Grindhouse, I had to choose between Meet the Robinsons (wasn’t in the mood for a cartoon), Pathfinder (Viking Dances with Wolves), Disturbia, and Lonely Hearts. The management at the Waynesville 8 is so Dickensian, that none of the ticket-sellers had seen any of the movies in question and could not, therefore, provide me with any guidance. Anyways, I chose Disturbia.

Disturbia is neither disturbing nor a commentary on suburban life-thank goodness. It is, however, a solid thriller with likable characters and a good premise. Kale, played by Shia LaBeouf, is a teenager who becomes "troubled" after losing his father in a car accident. When a Spanish teacher mentions his father, Kale snaps and hits the teacher whereupon he is sentenced to three months of house arrest. During his confinement, the sexy Ashley (the pretty if oddly hunched Sarah Roemer) moves next door. Deprived of his X-box and iTunes (though, curiously, he still has internet which I would prefer 1000 times over the former two), Kale passes the time by spying on Ashley and his other neighbors. This hobby leads to the main conflict in the movie as Kale suspects his neighbor, David Morse, of being the serial murderer on the news. Ashley takes up neighbor watching with Kale. Nature takes its course between those two and Kale's very funny friend, Ronnie, investigate the increasingly suspicious Morse.

The movie takes advantage of enough fright moments to keep the audience tense and yes, in suspense (I wasn’t scared because I’m in the Army, but I noticed others were quite frightened (:. Bad guys come into audience view as the good guys walk about oblivious to their presence. And, just to throw us off, sometimes they don’t. The pace is brisk and the movie doesn’t dwell too long on any one scene except maybe one love scene. The movie quickly and effectively establishes the son’s love for his father and then skips the boy’s decent into delinquenthood to arrive at the plot-necessary teacher assault (Battlestar Galactica did the same thing at the end of season two). When he does commit his almost-justified crime, it makes sense. The romance is also efficient and almost believable with the aforementioned longish here's why does this hot chick love this geek scene. The ending is satisfactorily exciting. If there’s one plot hole, it’s the reluctance of this crime fighting trio to involve the police earlier on in the mystery. The writers anticipate this objection and address it well enough not to make it a deal-breaker, but picky moviegoers will notice.

The most admirable feature of the movie is its restraint. Many moments present themselves for gratuitous gore, sex, or the banal weirdness of some other horror movies. What we get, instead, is a collection of pretty strait kids who try to resolve a situation. In this way, Disturbia is like a Scooby Doo for the older, happy teenagers. Unhappy teens may want to check out Rob Zombie movies. The final verdict is four stars. The movie is enjoyable, but lacks the profundity necessary for the fifth star.

Politics/Social commentary
Not too much. With a title like Disturbia, I expected some American Beauty-type social commentary, but the film-makers again displayed admirable restraint.