Shia LaBeouf: Leading Man?

So I’m going to be honest with you, when I was growing up I watched the Disney Channel all the time. I could lie and say I was merely scoping out Hilary Duff, but that would be, as I said, a lie. I just genuinely enjoyed their award-winning content. Now I’ll willingly admit that the acting was at times wooden and the storylines were a tad contrived. But that didn’t matter to me. Even Stevens, Lizzy McGuire, That’s So Raven: I ate that stuff up like nobody’s business.

You can imagine my surprise when two years ago I was reintroduced to a relic from my childhood: Shia LaBeouf. I first saw his name while watching a trailer for the Transformers movie. My skepticism about the ability to adapt a cartoon centered around robot-cars into a live-action movie was magnified when I saw who had landed the lead role. I could not believe that I was staring at one of my old favorites: the zany Louis from the hit show Even Stevens.

Ever since then I feel like I see Shia LaBeouf in every blockbuster movie I go to. And in every movie I see him in, I simply cannot take him seriously. The words coming out of his mouth are irrelevant; to me he’ll forever be the young trouble-making nerd Louis Stevens. 

Now my question to Hollywood is this: Are you freaking kidding me? You really couldn’t find someone better to tap as the next it actor? Now don’t get me wrong, I really did love the Disney Channel. But those shows weren’t  pillars of their craft by any stretch of the imagination. What’s next? Is Gordo from Lizzy McGuire going to be the next James Bond or something? I don’t think I could handle that.