Disturbia

This is a semi-decent thriller about troubled teenage Kale (Shia LaBeouf) who is under house arrest for punching his Spanish teacher. He has an ankle bracelet, Paris Hilton style. The punitive accessory sounds an alarm if leaves his yard, resulting in an extended trip to Juvenile detention. Sentenced to spend his entire summer in his house, Kale quickly becomes extremely bored and spends his days and nights spying on his neighbors. He soon notices one of the neighbors has some similarities to a suspected serial killer.

The plot is interesting although the details are pretty far fetched. Kale discovers that his troubled teenage soul mate has moved in next door. Enter Ashley (Sarah Roemer), a completely useless character who adds nothing to the film. The only rationale I can imagine for including her is to attract a few male teenage viewers who want to see her bikini clad form swimming in her backyard pool. There is also a goofy best friend Ronnie (Aaron Yoo) who ended up being my favorite character. The ending is definitely cheesy but earlier in the movie there are a couple good jumps. Overall it is sort of disappointing. The idea is good but I wish they had put more effort into developing the story and characters.