I'm glad somebody said it finally. Shia is not a bad actor he just has a bad agent.

I've felt that way about him for ages. He's a decent actor, he just has a knack for picking bad movies.

Couldnt agree more.

awesome review :)

Equally informative and entertaining. That's what a review should be.
I must say -
Since I started watching reviews on TGWTG I started watching movies in a completely different way.
You reviewers might not always be aware of this - but when it's done right (like in this review) you can really teach your audience things they wouldn't learn anywhere else. And the more educated viewers we have, the less crap movies will be accepted.

First time I saw LeBoeuf was in "Holes" and I remembered him as a good actor, not spectacular, but good.

Never saw Disturbia, but just based on your (and IMDB's) plot descriptions I can't dismiss the similarities in the stories as quickly as you do. It's not just two stories of "people who see something criminal outside their window", it's two people who are trapped in their houses, think they see something criminal but have no real proof, so they then recruit close acquaintances to go over to the suspect's residence in order to get the proof, which winds up putting the acquaintance (and soon the main protagonist) in mortal danger. That's a pretty extensive core plot that's identical in both movies, even if they do manage to "flesh out" the idea in very different ways.

And I think it's telling that one of the main things you seem to criticize Disturbia for in comparing it to Rear Window, the fact that it doesn't remain with LeBouf in his room and so doesn't manage to convey that sense of isolation & confinement so prominent in Hitchcock's film, is most likely something they felt they *couldn't* do or else they definitely *would* be found liable for infringing on the Hitchcock movie. According to what some guy with enough free time to write Wikipedia articles says, the Disturbia producers were found not liable in large part because "the total look and feel of the works is so distinct that no reasonable trier of fact could find the works substantially similar within the meaning of copyright law." I think it's fair to say that it's only the fact that Disturbia does move away from LeBouf's home & so loses the sense of confinement the Hitchcock film had that makes the "look & feel" of their film different enough to avoid copyright infringement.

It kind of makes me wonder: if someone were to take an old classic film about investigating some haunted house, such as say "The Legend of Hell House", and tell what is essentially the same exact story in the older film, but do it in the form of a "found footage" movie, would they be able to beat copyright violation charges because the "look & feel" of the found footage movie would inevitably be so different from the more conventionally shot film? Both "found footage" and Hitchcock's gimmick of shooting all of Rear Window from inside Stewart's apt. are really just ways of artificially restricting the point of view through which the story is told in order to give it a certain feel.

You make good observations, but for my money, you don't make the case. Having different acting styles, different approaches to characterization, and different overall styles isn't enough to prevent Disturbia from being a work of plagiarism. The protagonist is confined to his house because of a bad decision he made. He takes to spying on his neighbors. He has two, count them, two, people who come to visit him, one of whom is a love interest. He thinks he has seen a murder, but the police won't believe him. He enlists his friends to help prove that the murder really happened. It might not be plagiarism to the extent that the suit would be successful, but going by what I've seen, it still looks like Rear Window, Only Stupid. And I say the same for Equillibrium being Fahrenheit 451, Only Stupid.

You have become one of my favorite reviewers fast. I really look forward to these videos :-)

An interesting thing about Jimmy Stewarts career is how although he is widely seen as playing, as Leon puts it himself "'aw shucks' characters", Jimmy Stewarts onscreen roles changed pretty drastically after his service in WWII. His first role coming back was playing a guy on the brink of suicide during the Christmas holidays, and from there on his roles only got darker and more intense, particularly in Westerns where he often played revenge driven aging gunfighters.

I find watching his later work fascinating as the intensity of his presence on screen alone speaks volumes about how the horrors of war can change a man, more so than anything in fiction.

I love Rear Window. It's probably my favorite Hitchcock film. Even though my sister wasn't thrilled with Psycho, she loved this and started getting interested in other old movies. I also remember when Disturbia came out. It was the must-see movie in my high school. I did want to see it as well, but no one in my family wanted to see it with me. So, I never got to see it. I also remember seeing in the news when it was sued for having the "same" story as Rear Window.
That being said, I love your comparative analysis of both films. I love how you called Tranformers "atrocious;" I got a chuckle. I also like how you commented on the love interest in Disturbia. I expected as much from a script by two guys. Your comment really made me happy since not everyone seems to notice this about female characters in film (Merida for the win!). I also agree that Shia is not a bad actor. I grew up watching him on Disney Channel, so I know what he's capable of. I am still interested in watching Disturbia, mostly out of curiosity. But it's obvious it can never be Rear Window. Hitchcock was a known genius, so you have to be a genius as well just to match up to him. And all his female characters had personality at least.

I always hated how people give Shia so much crap, he's perfectly fine and only had the issue of picking some big stinkers.

I liked Disturbia myself. The third act was really eeeeeh with where it went, but the build up was great. Another great episode.

I gave up on Disturbia because I just found the actors unlikeable, but I didn't think it was BAD. And not really like Rear Window, either, apart from the basic concept.

...is awesome. I am incredibly happy to see you branch out from the old "Heart of Gaming" persona into something completely different, and I felt the analysis was well-put-together and satisfying.

Thanks. I'll be looking at your other stuff now.