2. Disturbia (2007)
It's Incredibly Similar To... Rear Window (1954) Once upon a time in Hollywood, somebody decided that it would be a good idea to make a movie that was exactly the same as Alfred Hitchcock's
Rear Window, expect that this time it would be called
Disturbia, and instead of Jimmy Stewart in the central role, we'd get Shia LaBeouf, that kid from Nickelodeon's
Even Stevens. I'm not saying it was a good idea - you see the movie and tell me what you think. They also didn't ask permission. So although
Disturbia is obviously a teen remake of Hitchcock's movie, to the extent that it's impossible not to recall that movie whilst you're watching this one, the filmmakers refused to say they were related. But listen: LaBeouf plays a douchey kid who is confined to house arrest via monitor strapped to his leg that will alert the police he tries to leave the perimeter. Bored, he finds himself entertained by a local neighbour, who he becomes slowly convinced is a murderer. To investigate, he enlists the help of an attractive girl. Everyone thinks he's nuts, but it turns out all along that he was right. Sound familiar? It's
Rear Window, yeah. And though in this case people actually did try to sue over
Disturbia, given the obvious similarities, a judge decided that the plots were only similar in a "general sense," forgetting to note that there was a fifty year time gap between the settings, and that it would have been impossible for it not to have been "general" given that the first movie is set in the '50s. D'oh.