The Boy Next Door

This movie has no point, no interesting Plot. You could tell this movie was gonna be bad just by looking at the trailer. Not even if it was the only thing on TV, I would never watch this movie ever again.

I want to forget this movie even exists, I want it erased from my memory. This movie is one of those movies where the actors just accept the movie just for the money without any purpose. Anyway I don't recommend this at all, please don't waste your time on this I'm telling you ahead of time if you haven't seen it. I don't care if it's early 2015, this is the worst movie of the year and if it get's an Oscar I'm deleting myself from this Earth.

Like its subject matter, 'The Boy Next Door' is getting such a hush- hush treatment it almost seems as if someone didn't want you to see it. If that is any indication that someone was embarrassed by how this reverse 'Fatal Attraction' thriller turned out, well we're glad to say that it isn't as bad as we had feared. To be sure, that should not be mistaken for any endorsement of its merit, but given how little pre-release publicity its distributors bestowed upon it, we were sure expecting something much, much worse.

In her first big-screen role in two years, Jennifer Lopez plays a middle-aged high-school literature teacher who is still struggling to recover emotionally from her husband's (John Corbett) betrayal one year on and raising her teenage son, Kevin (Ian Nelson, on her own. Enter new neighbour Noah (Step Up's Ryan Guzman), who has moved in next door with his ailing uncle and proves himself to be quite the fix-it hero around her place, especially since Garrett's (Corbett) absence means that there is a space for a man to be around the house. Even better, Noah loves poetry and his intimate knowledge of Homer's 'The Iliad' becomes one of the first few things over which he and Claire (Lopez) develop a connection over.

There is however no mistaking their (mutual) sexual attraction, not when director Rob Cohen introduces Noah bicep-first when he glides into frame to prepare Claire's wonky garage door. When Kevin takes off with Garrett for a weekend camping trip and Claire's had one drink too many after a failed dinner date, Noah seizes the opportunity to get it on with Claire. The morning after, Claire wakes to proclaim their coupling a mistake – no matter that Guzman looks older than he is meant to be in the movie, he is a new transfer senior attending Claire's class at her school. Her rebuff doesn't sit well with Noah, whom we slowly learn is in fact a psychotic stalker who grows even more enraged when he catches her responding to Garrett's advances to give their marriage a second chance.

First-time screenwriter Barbara Curry slowly ratchets up the stakes against Claire – first, Noah 'poisons' Kevin's relationship with his father; then, he threatens to make public photos and even a video of their one-night dalliance; then, he sabotages the brakes on Garrett's Dodger; and finally, he kidnaps Garrett and Kevin – which Cohen builds up as an increasingly thrilling chain of events leading up to their final confrontation. Not only does Noah prove himself to be a master manipulator, he also shows himself to be prone to bouts of violence, in particular against Claire's good friend and the school's vice principal (Kristin Chenoweth).

That said, it isn't anything we haven't yet before, or done to more titillating extremes; yet, despite its familiarity, Cohen guides the proceedings along with the sure hand of a veteran, and it is to his credit that the end result is much more engaging than it ought to be. We're not sure what Lopez saw in the material for her to not only star but produce this rehash of 90s exploitation thrillers, but she at least makes her character sympathetic. The same however cannot be said of Guzman, whose portrayal of menace and malevolence doesn't go much deeper than the acting you'll see in a high school play. And for those who are expecting to see Lopez and Guzman get hot and heavy, well let's just say that you're likely to find yourself left cold.

It is probably too easy to lambast a movie like 'The Boy Next Door', but the truth is there are many worse films out there which deserve to be buried more so than this does. The premise does feel dated, but there hasn't been a sexual thriller like 'Basic Instinct' or for that matter 'Fatal Attraction' in a while, so if you're in the mood for some trashy B-grade thrills, you'll probably find some of those urges satisfied somewhat by this teaser that never does really get past first base.

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.

My friend and I had a blast at this movie last Friday, but not for the reason you would expect. We literally laughed through the entire film - and what was even more fun was that the entire theater was laughing, too. The dialogue and plot were so thin and badly written, and the intense scenes so implausible, that it was hilarious. As the movie ended, I think all of us sat staring at the screen wondering if that really was the ending - that the credits were about to prove it was all over - that me, my friend, and the entire theater, cracked up all over again.

So, I have absolutely no regrets about paying money to see it. It was fun in its own right.

Of course, this is a bad movie. Yet, there are plenty of guilty pleasures to behold here. When I say it's bad, I didn't say I didn't enjoy it. I mean, there's a lot of potential going on. Unfortunately, it leads to a bit disappointing finale. But, it is salvaged by an amount of suspense before the ensuing chaos.

At first, J.Lo... why did she even bother signing on this? I thought that this is too low even for her standards. But, later on, I think that she's pretty committed on doing this role. So, I decided to lay back and enjoy the ride.

Then, along came Ryan Guzman, as the so-called "Boy Next Door". Hmmm... He did a pretty fine job. When the tension ratchets up, he looks threatening convincingly, despite what critics say about his performance.

The supporting casts are good as well. Kristin Chenoweth stood out for me, adding comic relief and zing along the way.

My main criticism is the script. Not only it's a bit sloppy, almost made-for-TV writing, but it falters in the end. There are some characters' action including Lopez's, that's nonsensical and... stupid, actually.

When it comes to nonsensical and stupid, I just wished they would close it with being campy and over-the-top. It doesn't truly reached that level and the result is only a half-baked mess.

But, all those flaws don't matter too much because Rob Cohen's direction are superior than most of his movies, especially his last offering "Alex Cross", although it's his fault too.

For a movie released in January, it's better than expected. But, for a real nerve-wracking thriller, don't get your hopes up too high.

Just watch it for pure brainless entertainment without much to think about. It's not that bad...