This. My mother used to watch that show all the time (don’t ask) and I just can’t see him as an adult. I still see him as Louis.
He’s OK, but he doesn’t stand out as having charisma, great acting abilities, great, looks, or anything. Nothing bad there, but nothing good either. Same goes for a thousand other people going for his roles.
I think he must just have an excellent agent.
Eh. He doesn’t suck, but he doesn’t deserve the acclaim he gets.
Consider, are there any roles of his in which he could be swapped out for another male actor about his age and the movie would change substantially? There’s a lot of actors for whom that would be true; the topmost one in my mind is Ron Perlman. Swap him for Vin Diesel in Hellboy, and you have a totally different movie. Swap Shia for, oh, let’s say Zach Braff, or some equally young male actor, and Transformers or Indiana Jones would be pretty much the same movie. He doesn’t bring anything really unique to the screen, although to his credit I don’t find him offensive.
Of course, I can look down my nose at him all I want, but the hard fact remains that he’s 4 years younger than me and has more money than I ever will. 
I think he is considered talented by the people in the business who matter. Look at his career and it is no surprise. I have never seen his TV role but his movie career is pretty telling.
Of movies I have seen, he had made Holes , * Constantine*, The Greatest Game Ever Played, *A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints * and Bobby by the time he was 20. I think he did a fine job in every one of those films, gained lots of exposure and worked with a string of name actors. *A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints * is interesting because he and Robert Downey play the same character at different ages and achieve the effect really well.
It’s just how Hollywood works. You get past the casting directors by having the right look for the part, do a good enough job and get another. I’m sure he does have a good and happy agent but look back to the start of any actor’s career and it is just a case of the right roles coming at the right time.
You have to remember that at the moment he is competing with other actors 23 and under for all these roles and so come time to cast Transformers and Indiana Jones who else is on the cards. Particularly since both will have sequels starring whoever you choose to play Sam and Mutt.
Although I have not seen the film, this strikes me as pretty ridiculous considering that they have virtually nothing in common facially and that there’s no conceivable way that someone who looked like LaBeaouefe as a young man would grow up into someone who looked like Robert Downey Jr.
Oops, yeah you’re right. I guess I don’t like Justin Long either 
I get more of a young Tom Hanks vibe from him myself. Sort of a goofy throwaway actor who appears in teen movies and romantic comedies and then after a few years stars in a dramatic role as a lawyer dying of AIDS and you ask yourself, “how the hell did that happen?”