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Being a voyeur with LaBeouf

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Times Staff Writer

“Disturbia” (Paramount, $30), which arrives today on DVD, kicked off the Shia La- Beouf juggernaut this spring. The teen thriller -- sort of a “Rear Window” for the MTV generation -- revolves around a high school student placed under house arrest for the summer after he punches out an obnoxious teacher.

While stuck at home sporting an electronic monitoring bracelet, he begins snooping on his neighbors, especially the creepy guy across the street (David Morse), who may or may not be a serial killer.

The film, which was made for $20 million, was a surprise No. 1 at the box office and proved that LaBeouf, the Emmy Award-winning star of Disney Channel’s “Even Stevens,” could carry a top-grossing film. Paramount and DreamWorks probably breathed a sigh of relief, since LaBeouf was also the lead in their big summer blockbuster, “Transformers.” He’s also starring opposite Harrison Ford in the fourth Indiana Jones adventure.

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The disc’s decent extras include a better-than-average gag reel and behind-the-scenes featurette and pleasant, funny commentary with director D.J. Caruso, LaBeouf (who was a stand-up comic at the age of 10) and costar Sarah Roemer.

Far less enjoyable is Ice Cube’s “Are We Done Yet?” (Sony, $29), a wheezy sequel to his 2005 hit “Are We There Yet?” This threadbare farce is a remake of the Cary Grant comedy classic “Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House,” which had already been redone without much success more than 20 years ago as “The Money Pit.” The lackluster extras include a gag reel, a film quiz, a production featurette and a profile of the oddball character played by costar John C. McGinley.

“Unaccompanied Minors” (Warner, $29), which was released last Christmas to unpleasant notices, isn’t much better. It revolves around a group of kids who are trapped at the airport on Christmas Eve due to a massive blizzard. The only saving grace is the DVD’s irreverent commentary from director Paul Feig, writers Jacob Meszaros and Mya Stark, and star Lewis Black.

The computer-generated animation on “TMNT” (Warner, $29) is pretty impressive, but this latest adventure starring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is strictly for fans. Included on the disc are early sketches of the alternate opening and closing, several deleted scenes, a look at the new software created to make the animated film and enthusiastic commentary from Kevin Munroe, a video game director who made the leap to the feature world with “TMNT.”

Looking for something aimed at adults? The good news is that there is such a title arriving today. The bad news is that it’s Chris Rock’s “I Think I Love My Wife” (Fox, $30), a tepid remake of French New Wave director Eric Rohmer’s exquisite romance “Chloe in the Afternoon.” Extras include the obligatory deleted scenes, outtakes and bloopers, a behind-the-scenes featurette and mundane commentary from Rock.

Also new

“Eight Simple Rules: The Complete First Season” (Disney, $28): One can only watch this ABC sitcom with mixed emotions because it was the last series for Emmy Award-winning actor John Ritter. Premiering in the fall of 2002, “8 Simple Rules” found Ritter in fine form as a sportswriter who decided to become a living section columnist so he could work from home. Ritter was nominated for an Emmy for his work, but he never lived to go to the award ceremony. He had filmed three episodes for the second season when he died on Sept. 11, 2003.

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“Elvis: The Hollywood Collection” (Warner, $50 each; $13 each): With the 30th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death less than two weeks away, Warner is releasing six of the King’s musicals on DVD for the first time. Save for “Girl Happy” and “Tickle Me,” though, most of them are pretty dreadful -- “Charro,” “Kissin’ Cousins,” “Stay Away, Joe” and “Live a Little, Love a Little.” Thankfully, the studio is also unveiling deluxe editions ($20 each) of two of Presley’s greatest films, 1957’s “Jailhouse Rock” and 1964’s “Viva Las Vegas,” as well as two acclaimed documentaries ($21 each), “Elvis: That’s The Way It Is” and “This Is Elvis.” The latter is also making its DVD bow.

“Luis Buñuel Boxset” (Lionsgate, $30): Two rarities from Buñuel, the Spanish-born filmmaker who was a master of the surreal: the first film he made in Mexico, 1947’s “Gran Casino,” and 1960’s “The Young One,” only the second film he made in English.

And

“The Salon” (Fox, $27); “Private Fears in Public Places” (Koch Lorber, $25); “Invasion of the Body Snatchers -- 1978 version” (MGM, $20).

susan.king@latimes.com

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