Rating: 
Summary: Felt like a made for TV movie with some swearing! Cliched!
Review: This movie fells like a made for TV movie. The story has been done before so many times. The stars do what they can with the material but this movie is so predictable. If you've seen the movie "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle" think of this movie as a male vs. male version! And instead of a baby, change to a teenager! I like Vince Vaughn and John Travolta but I found it hard to belive in thier roles. I only hope when this movie comes out on DVD, we get to see the R rated version of this movie! I wonder if it's better than the PG-13 version?Also the charcters are cliched and sterotyped! If you do see this wait until it hits your local cheap theaters or a matinee! Do'nt pay full price for this rehashed movie! Or better yet, watch "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle" which this movie is a direct rip-off of!
Rating:
Summary: Ugghhhhhhh; John Travolta didn't do it, again....
Review: By watching the previews, "Domestic Disturbance" looked like it was going to be a somewhat intelligent thriller, but instead I got a cheesy, farfetched movie. The acting was horrible; the actors put no emotions into what they were saying. Whoever wrote the script must be shot and never allowed to work again. The whole movie was implausible. It felt like I was in an 80's movie, because my intelligence was insulted so badly. Basically, most of the things in the movie couldn't have happened. A mother would not have been so stupid as the one in this movie. But it did entertain me, partly because of Steve Buscemi's short but funny scenes he had. If you want to see this movie, wait to video. Otherwise, maybe I'd wait for "Spy Game" to see a good thriller and go for a family film.
Rating:
Summary: Ridiculous plot, avoid at all cost!
Review: Danny Morrison is an undisciplined and unruly kid who has a tendency to lie, one night he happen to witness a murder committed by his stepfather Rick, but no one believes him except for his own father Frank. With little evidences to follow, Frank must try to find out the truth before something happens to his family. Not too original, but it did sound interesting enough for a suspense movie, unfortunately much of the plot was ridiculous and unbelievable, plagued with shallow characters. It seems that John Travolta just can't get a break, his performance as the divorced father Frank wasn't all bad, yet it felt hollow and unconvincing, definitely not his best work. Vince Vaughn's character Rick on the other hand seems to have a bipolar personality disorder, one minute he's this nice guy who everybody likes, and the next a monster who is capable of unspeakable things. Poorly executed with terrible dialogues, I'd suggest waiting to rent this one if you must, you'll be glad the time and the money you saved.
Rating:
Summary: Nice in places where it should be naughty.
Review: Stereotypical characters, convoluted logic, and an abundant absence of intelligence abide in "Domestic Disturbance," a thriller that wants to be naughty, but ends up playing nice. What begins as a somewhat interesting film tailspins into an unending chasm of unbelievable plot twists and aggravating characters who make all the wrong choices. Here is a movie that covers familiar ground, yet it fails to spark much interest once things go awry. John Travolta stars as Frank Morrison, a boat builder whose ex-wife Susan (Teri Polo) is on the brink of remarrying. This, of course, is unacceptable to their 12-year-old son, Danny (Matthew O'Leary), whose outbursts against his parents' divorce have led to being picked up from the police station on numerous occasions. Like any good father, Frank advises Danny to accept that which he cannot change, and to give his new stepfather, the wealthy and popular Rick Barnes (Vince Vaughn), a warm welcome. Now anyone who knows their thrillers can guess that if there is money involved, then there's usually a tainted past here and there; this film is no exception. The wedding goes off without a hitch, despite the presence of Ray Coleman (Steve Buscemi), a former acquaintance of Rick's who is set on collecting a large sum of money from his old pal. One thing leads to another, contrivances appear, and Rick has a murder on his hands, unaware that Danny witnessed the deed from the backseat of the car in which it occurred. This is the first in a series of several scenes that look promising, but hold little intensity or surprise. Judging from Danny's "Boy Who Cried Wolf" syndrome, it is easy to foresee that no one will believe him when he reveals what he saw, save for Frank, who must hold a grudge against his son's aggressor if there is to be any action or energy in the story. There's a little bit of cat-and-mouse going on, as Frank searches for the missing Ray and possible clues to take to the police, but it goes virtually nowhere. The movie seems more interested in showing us just how stupid people can be in such situations, however unbelievable they may be. From the start, Susan stands by her man, defending him against Danny's accusations. Does it ever occur to her that when a strange event happens, Rick was out of the house at that same time? Does she ever stop to think about how her disbelief in her son's statements is affecting him, rather than the old song-and-dance about her marriage to Rick? Even the police are completely clueless, ignoring everything until the end when it hardly matters. My big complaint with "Domestic Disturbance" is its editor, who has chopped the movie down to a mere 88 minutes, too short for a thriller and too long for a documentary on vengeful stepfathers. Paramount's advertising campaign for the film hit us with a slew of pre-release television commercials, as well as a lengthy and revealing theatrical trailer. There are scenes in both of these, one of which involves a car chase, the other involving a discussion between Rick and Frank in which Rick tries to buy him off. These and others glimpses are not even included in the final cut, and perhaps may have been more interesting than what we see here. The climax is standard fodder, but it has the ability to generate more intensity than the rest of the film altogether. Travolta turns in a good performance, convincing us of his status as a loving father; Vaughn fails to generate a sense of menace, while Polo does little else except look completely clueless. For all its attributes (which are few), "Domestic Disturbance" adds nothing new to a worn out genre; its lack of lucid plot could be overlooked if not for its failure to generate any level of suspense. ' Note: The film was shot on the eastern coast of North Carolina, in Southport, yet in one scene, Ray mentions his locating Rick was from a childhood memory of Rick's about a family vacation in Maryland. Your thoughts, Mr. McNally?
Rating:
Summary: He doesn't lie to me.
Review: Domestic Disturbance is a typical Hollywood film. The story, characters, and even the camerawork all seem prefabricated and recycled. The language that Travolta and Vaughn spurt from their mouths even feels repetitive. Do you know why? Because we have seen it all before. This film did not scare me, did not entice me, or even excite me in anyway because of the resemblance this had to every other film of this genre. It is the classic story of the boy that cried wolf too many times and eventually everyone never believed him. It is the classic story of the strength of a father that believes that when life throws lemons, that he must make lemonade. It is the classic story of the family struggle to survive against all odds. It is nothing fresh, it is nothing new, it is nothing remarkable. It is Hollywood, in its purest form. Audiences paid money to see this recycled film and for that I think we should all be issued an apology from the Hollywood community.
I even have the subtle feeling that everyone involved in this project felt the same way. Travolta and Vaughn are laughable in their roles. The child actor was acting, and you could tell every time he was on screen. The only "fun" character in this entire production was Steve Buscemi, who continually plays this slippery sneaky fishy looking character that just gets under your skin the wrong way. He was perfect, I only wish I could say the same for everyone else. Perhaps it is my newer images of Vaughn that hurt him in this role. After seeing the comedy duds like Dodgeball and Starsky & Hutch, I couldn't help but think that Vaughn was trying to play a bit of comedy into this role as well. He just didn't seem to fit. His eyes needed to see evil, when in fact they saw nothing more than the cue cards reminding him of his lines. I kept waiting to hear him say something to Travolta about "Vegas Baby, Vegas", but alas, it never occurred. I felt similar about Travolta's role in this film. His character suffered from lack of solidity. I never felt that he was a strong father. I knew he could build boats, but fight evil I just couldn't see it. I also had trouble seeing the father/son dynamic. During the scenes that him and O'Leary share, I continually felt that they were acting their parts, not building the characters. It was sad, and only left me with a weak impression of them when the climax occurred. Teri Polo was shallow, really contributing nothing to the story other than the classic role of mother who will not believe, while child actor Matt O'Leary definatly needed more time with an acting coach before landing this role. All of these paid actors were going through their parts, but not into their characters, which ultimately flawed the film.
What happens when you have actors not reaching their potential and a story that seems like it could be a "Made-for-TV-Movie"? You get the film Domestic Disturbance. The story was horrible. Father who loves his son, who cannot let go of a previous life (although it seemed that in the film Travolta and Polo were ok with there divorce), who doesn't trust his ex-wife's new beau. This seemed like a very troubled man instead of the hero that he portrayed. I also felt that this story really didn't give any credit to the local police. Instead of investigating, it seemed like they were just sitting around. That was Travolta's tax dollars at work, but instead he ended up doing all the work. It reminded me of the times that I have to bag my own groceries at the story. Am I not paying for the goods so that they can provide baggers? Ah well. From the opening scene of this film until the unclimactic ending (which made me chuckle due to the lack of sympathy), it was nothing more than Hollywood fluff. Travolta had been making a strong return to the film industry prior to this project, and I wish that somebody had talked him out of it. This film was filler, and plenty of people got paid for some shoddy workmanship.
Overall, I was very disappointed with this film. In fact, I was more than disappointed, I was appalled. This had no redeeming value to it (outside of Buscemi) and it continually perplexed me as to why it was made. There was no stretching of anyone's acting ability, nor did I ever really see the power family structure that was so important to the characters. What I saw was an angry father upset about the path his life has taken, and decides to do something about it using his son's lies as a crutch. Perhaps I needed Vaughn's character to be darker, or maybe more boats built to help me understand Travolta's role, but something needed to happen and it didn't. This was a sad excuse of a film, and I do not recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the cinema.
Grade: ** out of *****
Rating: 
Summary: Dull unoriginal thriller enlivened by excellent performances
Review: Well, this is certainly nothing we haven't seen before. A rerun of every domestic situation thriller of the past two decades (everything from "Pacific Heights" to "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle"), its one saving grace is its excellent performances: Matt O'Leary, who was also fantastic as Fenton in the brilliant "Frailty", gives a very intelligent mature perfromance; John Travolta makes a likeable hero, while Vince Vaughan is good as the creepy villian (much better than his camp performance as Norman Bates in Gus Van Sant's pointless remake of "Psycho"); and Teri Polo does the best she can with the role of damsel-in-distress. Otherwise, a very dull (apart from the scene where O'Leary is hiding in the car watching the murder - this is suspenseful) movie, with no originality whatsoever.
Rating: 
Summary: FATHER KNOWS BEST
Review: DOMESTIC DISTURBANCE is a by the book, easy to predict potboiler, but one directed with sharp verve by Harold Becker and given a boost by the performance of Matthew O'Leary as young Danny. O'Leary went on to show his incredible range in FRAILTY, but in this movie, he brings his doe-eyed innocence and fervent fear to form the core of the movie. John Travolta does well as Danny's father, although he sometimes seems overburdened with trying not to act like Pulp Fiction; Vince Vaughn is appropriately menacing as the wicked new stepfather, but we never really understand his motivation for marrying Polo in the first place. Steve Buscemi shows up in his usual seedy bad guy role, but doesn't get much of a chance to do anything with it.
This is an entertaining movie, and works because it attacks our primal fear of something happening to our kids. It's to O'Leary's credit that it works so well.
Rating:
Summary: A better movie then you think its going to be
Review: Yeah, I'll admit that I watched this disc with very little in the way of hope or expectations but an hour and a half later I was pleasantly surprised at this little thriller. While this film's foundation is comprised of typical 'B-movie' elements the film certainly over-achieves by way of Harold Becker's taut direction and Travolta and Vince Vaughn's excellent performances making this a better thriller then it deserved to be. As far as overall disc production goes, the video transfer is average at best while the 5.1 Dolby is slightly better. Extras are skimpy as well with a commentary track by Becker, a handful of deleted scenes and a few storyboard examples. Is the disc ultimately worth your purchase? Probably not - but certainly worth your rental dollar should you find yourself craving a well done b-movie thriller.
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