The Girl Next Door (2004)
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18-year-old Matthew Kidman is a straight 'A' over-achiever who feels that he has never really lived life to the full. That is, until he meets 'the girl next door'. Danielle moves in next door, and Matthew thinks he's found the girl of his dreams. All is going well, until Matthew's sex-mad friend Eli reveals that Danielle is actually a ex-porn star. Matthew doesn't know how to take the news or how to treat Danielle, and things go from bad to worse when Danielle's former producer Kelly appears to take her back.
--IMDb
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Review by Chad
Added: July 25, 2004
Matthew Kidman is your typical nerd, who is just about to graduate high school and move on to Georgetown University... that is, if he gets the scholarship he's been trying so hard to get. He's also in the process of raising enough money to get a Cambodian genius by the name of Samnang into his school, and between that, studying, and working on his speech that will hopefully win him said scholarship, poor Matthew doesn't have much time for a social life. But when Danielle moves in next door, all of that changes. Matthew and Danielle get a little relationship going on and things are working out nicely between them, until Matthew finds out that she's a porn-star. An argument over this ensues, and Danielle leaves him over it. The next day, Matthew realizes what he's done and that he really does love this girl, so he goes over to apologize for the things he said... only to find Kelly, one of the bigger porn moguls, taking her back to Las Vegas in order to make more movies. Whatever shall our hero do to prevent this?
This was a pretty entertaining movie, though it wasn't as much of a comedy as it was portrayed to be. Sure, there's some comedic scenes thrown in, and some damned funny ones at that, but this movie focuses on the romance part of the "romantic-comedy" label for the most part. The main gist of the movie follows Matthew and Danielle's relationship, and then how a bit of trouble will come up, and Matthew questioning if the relationship is worth it... then, he'll make some sacrifices in order to help Danielle, at which point, something else will come up. It's a pretty decent formula, but formulaic nonetheless. Though a good number of the storyline twists are predictable, there's still room for some surprises here and there, and overall, the storyline plays out nicely... though again on the predictability thing, if you didn't see the ending coming by the twenty minute mark or so, you just weren't paying attention. It sure would be nice if some of the modern movies would have some decent, surprising endings, but alas. Besides that, the only real problem with the storyline was in a few of the later scenes, where various characters would react to various things in a very unrealistic fashion... meaning, Matthew's reaction to one of the plot-twists is one that would never have occurred in real-life, and things would have made a lot more sense if he'd have taken the realistic route. Suppose that makes for some better storytelling, but really, it was a bit lame.
The acting throughout the film is surprisingly good for this type of movie. Matthew (Emile Hirsch) plays his role of the nerd-turning-into-a-man about as good as it could be done, while Danielle (Elisha Cuthbert) also plays her role of the former-porn-star-starting-a-new-life excellently. However, the real star here was Danielle's porno-pimp Kelly (Timothy Olyphant). Every scene he appeared in, he ended up stealing with his great line-delivery and mannerisms, which was definitely a plus. The rest of the cast did decently enough in their scenes, but really, nobody else was on-screen enough to be judged fairly. Nobody was too terribly bad, so that'll work.
Decent enough storyline, some funny moments here and there, lots of romance... I'll let you, the viewer, decide if it sounds like it's worth the viewing. 7/10 from myself.
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#2:
Big D
- added August 24, 2004 at 3:04pm
INDEED.
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#3:
Schillinger
- added August 25, 2004 at 9:30am
So boring. Elisha Cuthbert is hot, but that
doesn't change the fact that this was a piece
of crap.
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#4:
Crispy
- added September 10, 2004 at 12:51pm
I was really expecting more breasts in this movie
:-(
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#5:
bluemeanie
- added October 18, 2005 at 9:48pm
Emile Hirsch is adorable. There were some
genuinely funny moments in the film, and it did
remind me of those 1980's high school films a
little. I liked it. 8/10.
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#6:
ThunderStruck5a
- added August 31, 2007 at 2:44pm
i really enjoyed this movie (and i only saw the
edited for tv version). this also introduced
elisha cuthbert to me which im thankful for.
8.5/10
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#7:
Tristan
- added August 31, 2007 at 4:20pm
You're 18 years old and you never watched
Popular Mechanics For Kids? Wow. I guess it's
different for me because I'm Canadian, but
even then she was hot.
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#8:
danimigra
- added March 15, 2008 at 5:20pm
Just a nice ass do not make a good movie... this
is the example. 5/10.. too much for me.
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#9:
Shakes
- added January 22, 2009 at 12:23pm
Elisha Cuthbert is almost the only nice thing
going for this movie. Well, certainly the best eye
candy. I don't like Hirsch at all, i dont
know why. Timothy Olyphant is great in this, too.
6/10. mm...Elisha Cuthbert...
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65%
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