*** Official THE GIRL NEXT DOOR Review Thread (1 Viewer)

[Matthew Chmiel]

I'm editing this post since Crawdaddy chose my post to make it the "top" post of The Girl Next Door review thread.

Off the top:
The film does have nudity and brief girl on girl action, but none of it contains Elisha. She does get naked (but you only see her backside while she has undies on) and wears quite a few skimpy outfits, but nothing else. I'm sorry guys...

I was surprised by this film. DO NOT go in expecting another gross-out teen comedy, you will be disapointed. Go in expecting a film similar to The Last American Virgin (a teen sex comedy that meets drama) and you might just come out loving the film. This is one of the few teen sex comedies that actually has a plot and characters you care about.

A good job from the director of The Animal (an awful film) and the writers of National Lampoon's Van Wilder (a guilty pleasure of mine).

I'm happy that I ditched my friends tonight by going to see the sneak preview for this film instead of going to a basketball game.

 

[Michael Pakula]

I recommend everyone go see The Girl Next Door when it comes out. It is more than just a film with a pretty girl in it. I was actually quite impressed how for once a teen comedy in this generation actualy had a story rather than try to gross out the audience the whole time.


-Mike

 

[Robert Crawford]

This thread is now the Official Review Thread for "The Girl Next Door". Please post all HTF member reviews in this thread.

Any other comments, links to other reviews, or discussion items will be deleted from this thread without warning!

If you need to discuss those type of issues then I have designated an Official Discussion Thread.



Crawdaddy

 

[Patrick Sun]

I think this film suffered from the lack of some background music during many scenes because of the low energy by the acting made for very quiet scenes, you could almost hear crickets chirping. Other than the hotness of Elisha and the other ladies, the film is merely passable, and not all that endearing or interesting.

I'd give it 2.5 stars or a grade of C+.

 

[MattGentry]

After having seen a recent string of bad movies, I needed something good to lift my spirits.

And, this was it.

I liked it. Very enjoyable, and definitely took me by surprise.

And, to be fair, it's basically a remake of Risky Business. Um, in case no one noticed, that's a compliment.

 

[Robert Crawford]

A pretty funny film and it definitely is a take off of Risky Business. Not many people were in the theater, but the ones that were laughed throughout the film.





Crawdaddy

 

[Seth Paxton]

The Girl Next Door
8.5 of 10
This was the unrated DVD version and I am unsure how that differs from the theatrical version of the film.

The only real knock I could give the film was that it is a derivitive of Risky Business, although it avoided being so strongly connected that I knew what was coming next I recognized all the plot points after the fact, heck even the characters.

But to me that is a good thing because Risky Business was like an 80's version of The Graduate to me. Uptight success oriented guy on "the right path" gets taken through a maturing process thanks to an illicit sexual/romantic connection.

The direction is excellent in the film with many strong tone setting shots and style. The film exudes that fringe of danger mood that Risky Biz did, rather than being the teenage sexpot comedy that the ads implied. There is a seriousness to both the main characters worries and his relationship with the girl. At its most crazy the film slips in some Sixteen Candles vibe. The film never felt the least bit like an American Pie film and I am confused by such comparisons.

And the plot is no more outrageous than the plots of either RB or Grad. either. Hookers out of the living room? Not exactly realistic. TGNDoor never goes farther than that and it certainly doesn't play up such an angle. The plot is centered firmly on the hero learning to let go of his hangups on maintaining a perfect future...just like RB and The Graduate.

In the end you probably will feel like you have just seen a remake of RB, but considering today's teen films is that such a bad thing when its done well? For me it was refreshing.

BTW, Tim Olyphant was born for his character here and really sold it to me. I was also pleased with Emile Hirsh's effort as the uptight but willing to be pushed high school senior.

(edit - to be fair Girl Next Door is a 6.8 at IMDb and RB is only a 6.7, I guess I thought more people enjoyed RB than that)