The Boy Next Door

This movie was so predictable, and so obvious, that I knew a certain image from the very first scene would presage the denouement. And it did. The acting was mostly adequate, given the material. I had never heard of this Ryan Guzman, and will be surprised if I hear of him again. He was, well, adequate, but his was a role that an accomplished actor would sink his teeth into, and not relent until ALL of the scenery was masticated. Guzman was unable to be scary enough, creepy enough, or charming enough. Blah. Which brings me to Jennifer Lopez. I think she has become a pretty good actress, even though it is hard to tell in this one, due to the script. But I see that she has a producer credit. Can you not tell from a script that a film will be a dud? I'm actually asking. I do not know, having never read a script. The only real redeeming feature of this movie is the extreme beauty of Ms. Lopez. Wow. She is 45 now and is such eye candy. But she is the ONLY reason to see this film.

The classic literature teacher Claire Peterson (Jennifer Lopez) lives alone with her teenage son Kevin (Ian Nelson) in a house in the suburb. She is separated from her husband Garrett Peterson (John Corbett) since she has found he had an affair with a coworker in Los Angeles. Garrett wants to have a fresh restart with Claire but she is reluctant and prefers to stay alone. When the handsome nephew of her next door neighbor Noah Sandborn (Ryan Guzman) loses his parents in a car accident, he moves to the house and befriends Claire and Kevin. Noah seems to be an adorable young man and soon there is a sexual tension between Claire and he and one rainy night they have one night stand. On the next morning, Claire regrets but Noah becomes obsessed for her and shows his real personality.

"The Boy Next Door" is an unoriginal standard thriller with a well- known story. The viewer knows the whole predictable story from the beginning in a common screenplay that probably lays on the shelf of studios para every now and then make a movie. The attraction of "The Boy Next Door" is the hot Jennifer Lopez only; otherwise it would be complete garbage. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "O Garoto da Casa ao Lado" ("The Boy in the Next Door House")

I know the saying is actually with friends like ... but with a movie title like this ... what did you expect this to be? Only thing that might surprise you, is the fact that they allegedly went back and shot some extra scenes to make this spicier. How was that before, if this is the spicy/"erotic" version? Not that even further skin/encounters would have helped the movie.

But it is what it is. And that's a terror thriller, with an almost decent villain. It actually doesn't start that bad to be honest. I liked the way this went at the beginning and Jennifer Lopez does a neat job of pulling that role of. But just to a certain degree - after that it's downhill from there. So yes this is a bad movie, but it has a few things that can be seen as saving graces - if you're forgiving enough. Standard at best

Blumhouse Production's The boy next door (2015) with Jennifer Lopez, which went on to gross five times it's budget. A woman called Claire (Jennifer Lopez) , High school teacher , is separated from her unfaithful husband (John Corbett) . She's is on the verge of divorcing her husband Garrett after he was caught cheating with his secretary. While Claire's best friend Vicky Lansing (Kristin Chenoweth) stands by her and urges her to sign the divorce papers immediately and leave Garrett for good. She then falls for a younger man , the handsome, charming teenager named Noah (Ryan Guzman) who has moved in next door. She kicks him out and it causes a rift between both of them and their son Kevin (Ian Nelson). But Noah spends much of the time hanging out with Claire's son. One night, Claire gives in to temptation and lets Noah seduce her, but things go wrong when she attempts to end the relationship . Then their torrid affair soon takes a dangerous turn resulting in violent happenings. A moment she couldn't resist, an obsession he can't control !. Her mistake !. His obsession !.

This is a passable , manipulative and disturbing thriller with intrigue , suspense , twists , turns and the build-up tension is developed step by step . The plot is well-known and ordinary , as a neglected wife by her adulterous husband and left feeling particularly vulnerable as her marriage crumbles, as the lonely teacher has an affair with a younger neighbor that turns terrifying as his fiery lust morphs into perilous obsession . Exploring timeless themes of marriage and infidelity through the lens of modern attitudes toward strong women, personality disorders and coercive control . It results to be a deep-dive reimagining of the classic 80's thriller, ¨Fatal Attraction¨ by Adrian Lyne , equally dealing with one-night stand leads to terror as a main role continue to pursue the realtionship . This ¨The Boy Next Door¨ is an acceptable but no original suspense thriller , beautifully photographed by cameraman David McFarland and set to a successful soundtrack from Nathan Barr and Randy Edelman. Unfortunately, this already says everything positive, specially with films that want to surprise the viewer with their punchline, naturally it weighs particularly negatively if you already suspect the resolution at the end of the first act at the latest . The final part is at least a little more exciting , but eventually fails , due to the weak resolution, which had already been hinted at for an hour, as well as the stolen elements of other psychokiller films. Stars Jennifer Lopez who gives a so-so acting as the newly separated high-school teacher Claire Peterson , while Ryan Guzman is fine as the deranged and unsettling teen on the verge of going crazy . Being accompanied by a good support cast , such as : John Corbett , Ian Nelson, Kristin Chenoweth, Jack Wallace and Hill Harper of CSY New York .

The motion picture was regular but professionally directed by Rob Cohen who often directs high-energy action films, such as : Daylight 1996), The Fast and the Furious (2001), xXx (2002), or Stealth (2005) . He went on to produce and direct some of the most iconic films and television series of the 1980's, including Miami Vice (1984), Witches of Eastwick (1987), Ironweed (1987) and The Wiz (1978) . From 1990 onward, Cohen moved into directing full time. Much success followed with early 90's hits such as Dragon, Bruce Lee life (1993), Dragonheart (1996), Daylight (1996) and the Golden Globe award winning film The Rat pack (1998 ). At 52, Cohen had become a hit action director of youth films, directing the 2001 blockbuster, The Fast and the Furious. With this enormous hit , he partnered up with Vin Diesel again the following year to direct yet another box office hit, xXx (2002). Cohen directed the third installed of The mummy : the tomb of the emperator Dragon in 2008, grossing $405million world-wide. ¨The boy next door¨ rating : 5/10 . Mediocre but passable . The flick will appeal to Jennifer Lopez fans.

This is bad in the conventional sense where characters develop and we get insights, deliriously entertaining in the improbable trashy sense, as other J Lo thrillers have been. A smoldering boy moves in next door, he goes to the same school as J Lo's son where she's a teacher; a night of sex upsets balances.

The appeal is that we can have an assault on suburban normalcy, a titilating dismantling of normalcy; for example he fills a classroom with photocopies of their coupling and she has to scoop it up while pupils are about to come in any moment. Brakes on a car have been tampered with, he has kept a video, shenanigans just pile on and we watch in sardonic amusement as it gets more unhinged; it ends in one swoop with people getting shot and crushed by a winch.

On J Lo's end of things it's an opportunity for someone here to claim that the film empowers women and for us to arrive at the moral of the story, that mistakes happen and people deserve a second chance. I'll take the refreshing erotic thriller nonsense of this kind over juvenile Marvel races to save the world.