Disturbia

Disturbia and Perfect Stranger really are siblings but one sibling is bad and you want to strangle it (Perfect Stranger) and the other sibling is very well behaved (Disturbia). I love a well-behaved movie. You know, those movies where everything is fine; the acting, the story, the direction, the music, the pacing. I don't mean fine like Judi Dench-fine or "fine wine" fine, I mean fine like the movie did it's job. Disturbia is fine, in a good way. I escaped for 90 minutes, I believed what I was watching. I didn't roll my eyeballs. I got scared more than once. David Morse was scary. Shia La Beouf was charming. Carrie Ann Moss was...in the Matrix films. Sad to see an interesting actress reduced to doing next to nothing in a tiny role but, hey, I'm not her agent. So, in general, I really enjoyed the movie. I do, however, have a major reservation...

And this reservation is not so much directed at Disturbia but at Hollywood writers. I see a disturbing trend; stories that can easily be told in 45 minutes are being padded to fill 90-100 minutes. If you look at my two favorite movies, Jaws and Silence of the Lambs you see two scripts with not an inch of fat; everything is vital. But as much as I enjoyed Disturbia it could easily have been done in 45 minutes. And this problem is cropping up more and more.

And speaking of padding, the second night of American Idol is one big pad. They could do the second night in 3 minutes but they drag it out for 30 minutes. Thank God for Tivo.