Carl Ellsworth

Kale isn't handling things well after his father dies in a car accident. He ends up under house arrest, with an ankle monitor and proximity sensor, after hitting a teacher during a confrontation in which the teacher baited him by bringing up his father.

Kale's mother, upset that he seems to be trying to treat house arrest like some kind of extended vacation from school, revokes his access to TV, games, and anything else he might have used to pass the time. With nothing else to do, Kale starts watching his neighbors. On the more pleasant side of things, he spots a new neighbor named Ashley who he hopes to get to know better. However, he also spots another neighbor, Robert Turner, who he begins to suspect might be a serial killer.

This was one of my bargain bin purchases that I pretty much only picked up because I was in the mood for thrillers and it only cost me a dollar. I'm glad I didn't pay much for it, because it wasn't very good.

The "is my neighbor a serial killer or am I just starting to go nuts while under house arrest?" storyline was relatively interesting, although some of the things Kale and his friend Ronnie did were absolutely idiotic. The bit where Ronnie (unintentionally) scared the crap out of Kale was the worst. Who does that to someone they consider a friend?

The characters were a big reason why I hated this movie. It was painfully obvious that this was written by a man (actually, two men), because no teen girl who was supposed to be even semi-believable would have thrown herself at Kale after finding out about how much he'd been stalking her. I'm guessing Kale's recitation of all the things he liked about Ashley was supposed to be sweet, but in reality, he'd built an image of her in his mind based on things he'd seen while spying on her. Any "connection" he felt he had with her was more in his mind that anything. But no, the guy always gets the girl in these kinds of movies, even when the guy is a creep who spied on a girl while she was undressing.

Extras:

The container description lists several, but all I recall watching was the bloopers, which were disappointing.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)… (mais)

Crowe is terrifying as a fat pissed off guy whose job has fucked him over and is now on a rampage in pursuit of Pistorius and her son, Bateman, who both give excellent performances as well. Very well filmed with car crashes that will make you cringe, you still have to wonder about whether you really need to be watching something like this, which revels in Crowe's violence toward anyone connected with Pistorius. The diner scene is sickening, for instance. But luckily, the film doesn't drag out too long. The story is somewhat marred by police who never show up on time, but it was filmed in the New Orleans area, although you might not recognize it.… (mais)