Fast rising star Shia LaBeouf is really on a roll these days. His movie Transformers was a huge worldwide hit, and Disturbia — released in the US a few months before Transformers — also generated surprisingly big business for such a small film.

In Disturbia, Shia plays a troubled teenager who is under house arrest after punching his teacher. The cops have attached a tracking device to his ankle, which stops him from going more than 100 feet from his front porch.

Bored with being at home, Shia begins to spy on his neighbours — especially the hot babe (Sarah Roemer) who's frequently sunbathing in her backyard, and the weird middle-aged guy (David Morse) who's always entertaining young women in his house. When a few young women are reported missing, Shia begins to suspect that David may be responsible for the crimes...

Disturbia plays like a teen version of Alfred Hitchcock's classic thriller Rear Window where the hero is observing and piecing together the whole crime scene from his room. Although the premise is clearly unoriginal, Disturbia is quite clever in its use of up-to-date technology such video cameras, cellphone cameras and other gadgets popular with teenagers, to tell the story.

Teenagers will definitely enjoy this tight, well-acted thriller that's clearly targeted at them. For the rest of us, let's just say there are worst ways of spending two hours of your life.