CERTIFIED ACE MOVIE REVIEW : THE BOY NEXT DOOR

The Boy Next Door, a campy throwback

Genre: Erotic Thriller
Country: United States
Studio: Blumhouse Productions
Smart Entertainment
Nuyorican Productions
Universal Pictures
Release Date: January 23, 2015

Director: Rob Cohen
Starring Jennifer Lopez, Ryan Guzman, John Corbett, Ian Nelson, Kristin Chenoweth



"I love your mom's cookies."

Says one of the double entendre lines from the Step Up series dancer turned obsessed pyschopath Ryan Guzman in this erotic thriller film featuring Jennifer Lopez as a Classic literature teacher being stalked by his neighbor. The film is produced by Jason Blum, known for his low budget horrorfest flicks like Insidious and The Purge. Lopez also acts as co-producer.
The film is a nod to the obsession movies from the previous era like Fatal Attraction (1987) and Single White Female (1992) but with a more modern touch.

So how did the movie fared? Let's find out as we get a closer look at it.



Story

The film opens with a flashback of Claire (Jennifer Lopez) and her husband's separation due to the latter's affair with his secretary. She and her teenage son, Kevin (Ian Nelson) starts a new life with Clair teaching Classic Literature in her son's school. Her best friend and colleague Vicky (Kristin Chenoweth) urges her to divorce her husband, as she tries to find a new man for her friend.




One day, while trying to fix their garage door, she meets Noah (Ryan Guzman), the orphaned nephew of her wheelchair-bound neighbor—who has just moved in next door, who helps her. Noah gets drawn to Clair, expressing his love for the classics, especially Homer's Illiad. He continues to help her and Kevin with different tasks, with him and Kevin becoming complete friends.
Later on, Kevin joins his father, Garrett (John Corbett) in a fishing trip. While they're gone, Vicky sets up a double date for them, which ends a disaster.


The same night, Noah calls her and asks for help. But it ended up with Noah telling her his true feelings for her. He seduces her, and even as she tried to resist him, she eventually falls for his advances and had sex with him at his house. The following day, she wakes up realizing what she has done. She explains to Noah that it was just a mistake and that she didn't meant it to happen, which infuriates him.
From then on, Noah keeps stalking her, blackmailing her at the same time about what happened between the two of them. His behavior soon escalates and his deadly nature is revealed as Claire tries to escape him.


Acting

Genre films like this doesn't really require much acting depth as with other genre. So most people already expected the type of acting quality that they would see in the movie. Jennifer Lopez' performance isn't the one you can call an Oscar-winning acting but she does alright. She excels mostly during the time she gets intimate with Noah's character.
Meanwhile, co-star Ryan Guzman presents the obsessed neighbor Noah a little bit too campy. But it seems alright since it made the whole movie fun and entertaining. He definitely loos fun to watch as he teases Claire with his double entendre about what happened to them that stormy night.
One thing that I felt was a little bit awkward in the film was Kristin Chenoweth in the film. I don't know but I felt she was just included there to add a little bit humor to the film and to raise the body count of Noah's victims. It's not really a big deal because she made the most out of it.
John Corbett does his job as a cheating husband trying to show to his ex-wife that he has already changed.
Ian Nelson also fits into his character as Claire's son.


Direction

Rob Cohen was successful in translating the script written by Barbara Curry into the big screen. I really liked the overall campy tone of the movie.

Yes, it was cliched. Yes, it was bad. But this is one of those films that is so bad that it's good. The movie isn't aiming for critical acclaim. It knows for itself that it wont win the hearts of critics looking for depth and substance and all that shit. It's aiming more to entertain people. And it was successful in that point.







Overall

The film may not win the hearts of critics. But the film is fully aware of that. All my friends and office mates actually enjoyed it the film and were recommending it to others. So if your looking for a campy erotic thriller filled with double entendres, sex, nudity, and a bit of violence and gore, or you just want to see Jennifer Lopez getting intimate with some guy, then this movie is for you.
It has all the goods that genre fans are looking for. You wont get disappointed.

I am rating this movie 4 out of 5 stars.