Slickly shot, generally well-acted, and entirely, predictably conventional from stem to stern is the new teen-friendly urban thriller Disturbia. It's the lamest movie of D.J. Caruso's directorial career, and it also stands to become his most profitable. (OK, Caruso's Taking Lives is equally forgettable, but I'm a big fan of The Salton Sea, plus I found Two for the Money to be more entertaining than most folks did.) Painfully "inspired" by flicks like Rear Window, Body Double, or any other thriller in which window-to-window voyeurism plays an important role, Disturbia delivers an entirely generic story, packs a strong lead performance by Shia LaBeaouf, and will vanish from your memory banks in less time than it took to buy the tickets. Even if you love the flick (which is highly unlikely), it'll still be forgotten in very short order.

The plot, quite literally, could not be simpler: A teenage boy under house arrest believes that his neighbor is a serial killer ... and nobody believes him. Skeptical Mom, Annoyed Cop, Goofy Best Friend, and Brand-New Hottie Next-Door all bounce around the periphery as Wolf-Crying Boy waits for The Nefarious Neighbor to do something nasty. And since that neighbor is played by the always-menacing David Morse, there's not much question as to his character's true intentions. (Casting directors generally don't go with David Morse when they're looking for someone to play "wrongfully accused.") It's all very rote and predictable and familiar, and by "all" I'm also including an atrocious third act that shoots for chills and delivers only muffled yawns.

With the South by Southwest Film Festival only a short ten days away, you'd think the programmers would be taking it easy. Wrong-o. Nobody rests on their laurels down in Austin, which explains why the SXSW crew keeps adding new movies, panelists and special guests! Here's the most-recent (although probably not final) batch of late additions:

Pop star James Blunt will attend the world premiere of James Blunt: Return to Kosovo, so be sure to bring those autograph books, ladies!

Director D.J. Caruso and "hot young" actor Shia LaBeouf will be in attendance for the world premiere of their Disturbia thriller, and will probably be talked into a post-movie Q & A session.

Actress Connie Britton and director Sarah Kelly will be here to introduce their cool-looking '80s-centric movie The Lather Effect, which also stars Tate Donovan, Eric Stoltz, Ione Skye, Peter Facinelli and Monica Keena.

Producer Elizabeth Avellan will stop by for a panel discussion on March 14th, and considering she's worked on movies like Sin City, Spy Kids and Grindhouse ... I just might have to stop by and have a listen.

Reign Over Me, a flick that sure looks like a true-blue "tearjerker for guys," will have its world premiere at SXSW on Wednesday, March 14. Written and directed by Mike Binder (The Upside of Anger), it stars Don Cheadle and Adam Sandler as former college roommates whose lives took off in decidedly ... different directions. (UPDATE: Both Cheadle and Sandler will be in attendance at this screening.)

More SXSW updates as they become available. And get ready for some serious wall-to-wall coverage of America's finest flm festival once March 9 hits the calendar.

Take a big splash of Rear Window, a tiny pinch of Fright Night and ... a guy stuck in his home thanks to a house arrest anklet ... and you've got Disturbia, an impending thriller that MIGHT have been half-decent if the brand-new trailer didn't give away all the good stuff.

Shia LaBeouf stars as a young man sentenced to three months of house arrest, so he does what any normal guy would do. No, not movies or books or Xbox ... he starts spying on the whole neighborhood! And since one of the guy's neighbors is played by David Morse, you just know there's going to be a big dose of no-goodness goin' down in suburbia.

The liberally borrowed plot structure and spoiler-happy trailer aside, I can still admit a small sense of anticipation for this movie. I've always been a big David Morse fan, plus Carrie-Anne Moss is also part of the equation. Moreover, the director is D.J. Caruso, whose last three movies were Two for the Money, Taking Lives and The Salton Sea -- two of which I enjoyed quite a bit. (The goofily-titled Disturbia opens on April 13.)