Imran H. Khan

Paramount Pictures' latest flick Disturbia has squeezed its way to the top, knocking down Blades of Glory and Meet the Robinsons in wake. A psychological thriller, Disturbia tells the story of a troubled Kale Brecht (Shia LaBeouf) who becomes grim and withdrawn from society after the death of his father. His isolation reaches its severity when he breaks the law and ends up under house arrest. His mother, Julie (Carrie-Anne Moss), works 24/7 to support herself and her son, only to be met with indifference and lassitude. As with most caged up people without a life, Kale soon turns his attention to voyeurism, peeping into the lives of others. Amongst the homes of his suburban neighbourhood, there could be a serial killer lurking. Does his suspicions really hold water, or the product of his overactive imagination, I can only tell once the film hits Dhaka's market or at least is available on Bit-torrent.

Perfect Stranger is one of the movies that I have eagerly been anticipating. Though most of the viewers were quite harsh with their ratings (4.9/10 from 1,510 user votes on IMDB), I would still say that this thriller is not to be missed. Maybe launching it on April 13 (Friday for Bangladesh) didn't do much for its karma but the film stars Bruce Willis and Halle Berry, two of my favourite stars. They are the prefect ingredients of any good movie. The plot follows investigative reporter Rowena Price (Berry) who learns that her friend's murder might be connected to powerful ad executive Harrison Hill (Willis). The journalist goes undercover to ferret out the businessman but soon learns that she isn't the only one changing identities. The closer Rowena inches towards the truth, the more she realises how far people will go to protect it. The stage is set for a game of online cat-and-mouse.

A bit about Bruce Willis: Willis was born on March 19, 1955 the eldest of four children in Idar-Oberstein, West Germany where his father was a welder serving in the U.S. In my opinion, three of his best movies had to be Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys (1995), Armageddon (1998) and Unbreakable (2000), though there are dozens of others where he played a vast array of characters, starting from the serious assassin in The Jackal, to the funny assassin in The Whole Nine Yards, to being Rachel's (Jennifer Aniston) boyfriend in the hit sitcom "Friends”. The next few years we saw him in some serious roles such as a failed LAPD hostage negotiator in Hostage (2005), the world-weary and heart-troubled cop in Frank Miller's crime noir comic book series Sin City (2005) as well as the notorious hit-man in Lucky Number Slevin (2006). Let's leave Halle Berry, a former teenage beauty queen, for another day.

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