Review: Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son

Reviews

Disturbia

A Rear Window redux

By BRETT MICHEL | April 10, 2007

2.5 Stars

VIDEO: Watch the trailer for Disturbia.

What happened to D.J. Caruso, the promising director who debuted with the little-seen The Salton Sea? Sure, his 2002 film shambled through its noirish paces, but its mournful saxophone riffs interwove into an atmospheric narrative fugue. This latest is a feature-length alt-rock-soundtrack shill that merges with violin strains that would make even Bernard Herrmann blanch. Caruso’s slide began with the predictable 2004 Angelina Jolie serial-killer sex thriller Taking Lives; the descent quickens with this Rear Window redux that lacks the good grace to acknowledge its source. (Story credit goes to Christopher B. Landon, if not a student of Hitchcock then certainly of Jayson Blair.) And just who anointed Shia LaBeouf America’s next leading man? The kid must have a great agent, as he’ll next be seen in Michael Bay’s CG-laden Transformers, but not even computer effects can transform him into Jimmy Stewart.

Related: Eagle Eye, Autumn peeves, The girls of summer, More

Topics: Reviews , Celebrity News, Entertainment, Michael Bay, More

| More

See more deals

view all

[ 02/17 ] Festival Ballet Providence presents UP CLOSE ON HOPE @ Black Box Theater

[ 02/17 ] "Dana Levin: A Classical Realist In the 21st Century," an exhibit of paintings @ Bert Gallery

[ 02/17 ] Mary Poppins @ Providence Performing Arts Center

ARTICLES BY BRETT MICHEL

REVIEW: THIS MEANS WAR | February 16, 2012
What promises to be a modern Jules and Jim (until you realize it's directed by a 43-year-old who calls himself "McG") quickly devolves into Spy vs. Spy territory, only with incompetently staged and edited action and little of that ol' Mad magazine zing.

REVIEW: THE VIRAL FACTOR | January 17, 2012
Made for a modest budget of $17 million — and feeling like it (who needs convincing explosions in an action movie?), Dante Lam's latest still gets the job done from a run-and-gun standpoint.

REVIEW: EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE | January 17, 2012
Too soon? For Stephen Daldry's 9/11 drama, the right time is "never."

REVIEW: THE DIVIDE | January 10, 2012
Many a teleplay for The Twilight Zone threatened atomic Armageddon, and though Frontier(s) director Xavier Gens nukes New York in the opening shots of his latest thriller, he finds more inspiration in the horrors of human nature as seen in the old TV show's episode "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street."

REVIEW: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL | December 20, 2011
Impossible Missions Force agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) returns to the screen in dramatic fashion as new teammate Jane (Paula Patton) and the returning Benji (Simon Pegg) break him out of a Russian prison.