The Boy Next Door: Blu-ray Review
The Movie:
Claire Peterson (Jennifer Lopez) is a high-school literature teacher struggling to get back in the dating game after separating from her cheating husband while raising her adolescent son. When handsome and charismatic 19-year-old Noah (Ryan Guzman) moves in next door, Claire has a moment of weakness that leads to an intimate night together. Noah’s attraction quickly turns into a violent obsession, threatening to tear apart Claire’s world and endanger the people she loves.
We all remember the thrillers that creeped us out like Sleeping With The Enemy, Fear, The Crush and even Single White Female so I think it’s about time for a resurgence of this kind of film. It basically follows the same formula as you would normally see so I wasn’t to surprised with that. What I was surprised with the most was the performances. Lopez was fantastic and has gotten so much better over the years. As she’s a bit older now she is playing more mother roles but hasn’t lost her sex appeal one bit and it’s definitely out there in this film. Her performance was powerful and believable in every way and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Guzman on the other hand completely caught me off guard and basically stole the show in my opinion. He made the craziest transition from nice, handsome boy next door to a crazed, obsessive and maniacal creepazoid. Even though he is portraying a 19 year old kid he plays himself up to be just as dangerous and murderous as any other movie villain. I was really impressed by what I saw and is a huge departure than what I saw in the Step Up films. The film is predictable in some aspects but that doesn’t take anything away from it being an enjoyable thrill ride that keep your eyes glued to the screen. 8/10
Special Features:
Deleted Scenes – A handful of scenes here that are pretty good but not great.
The Making of The Boy Next Door – A look at the overall story, characters, situations and how they brought this film to life.
Feature Commentary With Director Rob Cohen
