"Disturbia" shouldn’t work as a movie at all. I mean it’s a freakin’ rip-off of a freakin’ Alfred Hitchcock film!! But it does and I’d say it’s because of the starmaking turn by Shia LaBeouf.

Now that "Disturbia" has landed on DVD, it comes after the mega-release of "Transformers". So answering the question of which movie made Shia a star is similar to answering the question of which came first: the chicken or the egg? There are going to be some people who saw "Disturbia" first and some who saw "Transformers" first. And honestly, there are a lot of similarities in Shia’s characters for each. Shia is the master of the aw-shucks, stammering nervous teenager bit. Some (Steven Spielberg) have compared him to Tom Hanks. I would go so far as comparing him to Jimmy Stewart.

And of course, Jimmy Stewart starred in "Rear Window," which is the film that "Disturbia" is ripping off updating. Shia plays Kale, a teen that is sentenced to house arrest for punching his jerk of a teacher. Kale gets so bored that he spies on his next door neighbors including the hottie next door, Ashley (Sarah Roemer), and the creepy-possible-murderer Mr. Turner (David Morse). Thus, is the plot of our film, though I don’t want to forget to add that Kale has a nerdy/stoner/Cali boy-Asian sidekick named Ronnie (Aaron Yoo).

Again, this film shouldn’t work. At all. But some props need to be given to the director D.J. Caruso, who allows the first half of our movie to really get to know Kale. We watch as Kale makes a Twinkie sculpture (doesn’t it suck to be house arrested?) And it’s hard not to feel for Kale as he stutters through his interactions with Ashley. Heck, it’s hard not to root for him as he engineers his own meet-cute with her from the confines of his allowed legal square footage. Also, consider the opening sequence of Kale and his father. It’s shot in a naturalistic tone so its sad conclusion is felt even deeper.

Where the film fails is in its rushed ending/thriller aspects. Don’t see this movie because you want a good scare. There is a particularly taut sequence involving Ashley and Ronnie with their camera phones/video camera and Kale confined at home. But after that the film just devolves into nonsense. It could have been a lot better, but the film still lingers because of Shia. He’s really awesome/hot/the next Tom Hanks/the next Jimmy Stewart/isn’t Tom Hanks the next Jimmy Stewart. Shia can be both because he’s awesome.