The Boy Next Door

Tags

2010's, Ian Nelson, Jennifer Lopez, John Corbett, Kristin Chenoweth, Rob Cohen, Ryan Guzman, The Boy Next Door, Thriller

Film Title

The Boy Next Door

Director

Rob Cohen

Starring

• Jennifer Lopez as Claire Peterson
• Ryan Guzman as Noah Sandborn
• John Corbett as Garrett Peterson
• Ian Nelson as Kevin Peterson
• Kristin Chenoweth as Vicky Lansing

I must say before I go into this review that I sometimes don’t mind derivative movies full of clichés. As long as they’re entertaining I can accept some of the flaws within them. The same can’t be said about The Boy Next Door, which is clichéd as hell but not at all thrilling or riveting in the slightest.

Claire Peterson is an attractive English teacher with a teenage son Kevin. She is currently in the process of contemplating divorce from her unfaithful husband Garrett. Her best friend and fellow member of school staff Vicky attempts to fix her up with various dates, but none of them are to any avail. While she is attempting to make a decision about her precarious marriage, her next door neighbour’s handsome nephew Noah Sandborn moves in. The charming Noah seems to be a nice guy who helps Kevin out with school bullies, is well versed in the literature that Claire teaches and cares for his ailing uncle. He begins to flirt with Claire, who sees it as harmless and somewhat flattering. Yet after she gives into passion and sleeps with him, events begin to take an unexpected turn. While she dismisses their sexual encounter as a mistake, the young Noah takes the situation to obsessive and terrifying heights. What started as a mistake soon grows into violent consequences as Noah descends into full-on psychosis and begins to terrorise Claire and all of the people close to her. As this reign of terror becomes more disturbing and increasingly warped, Claire must find a way to survive before it’s too late.

As mentioned earlier, I can forgive some clichéd movies with a repeating formula if they entertain me. But to say that I was entertained while watching The Boy Next Door would be a major lie. The whole thing for lack of a better word is a failure. It is supposed to be a terrifying thriller, but any thrills that I tried to conjure up where laughably bad. I can say the same thing about the script which is littered with hopelessly awful dialogue that will make you cringe more than once. Rob Cohen’s uninspired direction does the movie no favours and could have been better. This is the kind of film in which characters make ridiculous decisions that are dumb and really stretch credibility. Another thing about The Boy Next Door is that it feels at various times to just be an excuse to see Jennifer Lopez and Ryan Guzman in states of undress. The camera ogles Lopez’s curves and breasts whenever it can, while also taking in the sweaty muscles and peachy bum of Guzman in a scene in which he takes a shower with the curtains open. Not that I have anything against that, but the excessive display of flesh doesn’t make this movie any more watchable. The score attempts to be creepy with choral voices but is way off the mark.

Jennifer Lopez, when given the right material, can be a very capable actress. The opportunity to use her talent is completely wasted in this endeavour, as her character makes some really misguided decisions. She is still as sexy as ever, but her gorgeous presence can’t save this messy movie. Ryan Guzman may have some charm as Noah, he just can’t quite flex his acting muscles that convincingly when showing Noah’s obsession with Claire. Then again the character is so badly written no one could have brought any credibility to it. None of the other roles of John Corbett, Ian Nelson and Kristin Chenoweth are really memorable and are merely superfluous.

All I have left to say is avoid The Boy Next Door at all costs.

 

Dragon’s Loyalty Award

Tags

Dragon's Loyalty Award

What a way to get back from a holiday. No sooner had I stepped back onto the blogging world, I received a notification of another award. The fabulous, beautiful and peachy bum loving Emma has nominated me for my first Dragon’s Loyalty Award. I am greatly honored to be receiving this and I feel so happy I could run down the street with no clothes on.

So now that I’ve thanked the wonderful Senorita for her award I will complete the winning process of acceptance. First, here are seven interesting facts about me.

1. I love the feeling of breaking in a new pair of shoes.
2. I don’t believe in lying unless it is for a very good reason.
3. No part of my body is pierced yet, that may change in the future.
4. My guilty pleasure on TV is Geordie Shore.
5. I have often been told I’m good at doing impressions of film characters.
6. The one thing that I hate most is prejudice, I feel there is no need to treat someone unfairly simply because of differences. We are all different in our own way and we all deserve the right to be treat equally.
7. I will watch most sports on TV, but I find Golf boring.

Now here are my amazing nominees. I may be bending the rules here, but I follow so many blogs and I don’t want to leave anyone out. Instead of 15, I’ll do 5.

1. Husband and Husband
2. Zobo
3. The IPC
4. Alex Raphael
5. Anna

Thanks amazing Emma for this award.

 

Into the Woods

Tags

2010's, Anna Kendrick, Billy Magnussen, Chris Pine, Daniel Huttlestone, Disney, Emily Blunt, Fantasy, Into the Woods, James Corden, Johnny Depp, Lilla Crawford, MacKenzie Mauzy, Meryl Streep, Musical, Rob Marshall

Film Title

Into the Woods

Director

Rob Marshall

Starring

• James Corden as The Baker
• Emily Blunt as The Baker’s Wife
• Meryl Streep as The Witch
• Anna Kendrick as Cinderella
• Daniel Huttlestone as Jack
• Chris Pine as Cinderella’s Prince
• Lilla Crawford as Little Red Riding Hood
• Billy Magnussen as Rapunzel’s Prince
• MacKenzie Mauzy as Rapunzel
• Johnny Depp as The Big Bad Wolf

Something of a re imagining of classic fairy tales bound together with a newer story and put into a musical/fantasy hybrid from Disney, Into the Woods is also a mixed bag of sorts.

In classic fairy tale fashion, the movie opens with the words ‘Once Upon a Time’. The main story is of a Baker and his Wife who more than anything in the world want a child, yet somehow for them it has proved impossible. The source of this comes literally spinning into their home like a whirlwind in the form of an evil and very powerful Witch. The evil being explains that due to the Baker’s father stealing beans of magical properties from her precious garden, she placed a curse upon his family so that future generations would be unable to have children. The devious hag also took the Baker’s baby daughter and raised her as her own. The girl eventually became the long-haired Rapunzel, imprisoned in a tower from the outside world, singing lilting lullabies to pass the time. She is later discovered thanks to her lovely voice by a handsome prince, who falls deeply in love with her. Meanwhile, desperate to break the curse upon their family, the Baker and his Wife accept the terms of the Witch’s hard bargain. If they can procure four specific items from classic fantasy stories within the days before the third full moon, the curse will be forever lifted. This in turns means they must both journey deep into the mist enshrouded woods where magical mayhem and mystical mischief awaits them. We also have the stories running alongside this one, that include the items needed to break the curse. These consist of a young boy named Jack selling his beloved cow for magical beans that grow the famous beanstalk, a greedy girl in a red cape visiting her Grandmother as well as being stalked by a hungry wolf and a downtrodden Cinderella transformed from rags to riches so she can attend the nearby ball held by another dashing royal prince.

As aforementioned, Into the Woods is something of a mixed film of both excellence and parts that could have been improved upon. Rob Marshall does infuse the piece with visual style and theatricality, which is very befitting of the musical genre. And boy does the visual style deliver with the Gothic woods being a particular highlight of production design. The costumes are also very well crafted with technique and effortless skill. I must say I enjoyed Corden’s narration, he brought a wry delivery to it as magical events continued to mount. Where Into the Woods falters is in its length and lack of memorable musical numbers. Although the pacing in the beginning of the movie, in the second half it tends to drag and become a little boring. As for the musical numbers, the stream of consciousness approach is actually rather good for a while. Yet it can become very monotonous and though some numbers bristle with energy, there isn’t really a killer song to be remembered once the movie ends. The same can be said about the altering of classic fairy tales. In some cases it provides interesting and often dark viewing, but in others it should really have been left to the classic version. Saying all this, Into the Woods is definitely a more enjoyable movie that Marshall’s last musical Nine, but it still has many flaws.

James Corden and Emily Blunt are really good in the central roles and have humorous yet loving chemistry with one another. Blunt is especially excellent at portraying the good-hearted Wife with warmth and shows off considerable skills in the vocal department. Meryl Streep takes what is essentially a pantomime villain role as the crone and breathes life into it. You can really see that Streep is having a ball here portraying the evil and cunning Witch and she plays it with such delicious glee. As always when Streep is in a movie, she gives it calibre with her engaging and highly talented presence. Anna Kendrick combines a beautiful voice and sympathetic delivery to give a modern interpretation of Cinderella; as we watch her wrestle with indecision over a union with her Prince. Daniel Huttlestone plays Jack with wide-eyed charm and youthful energy as he inadvertently gets himself tangled up in this magical quest. Chris Pine is used too little to be really memorable. Though it must be said that his musical number where he argues that the pain caused by love is greatest of all is particularly funny. Lilla Crawford brings a bratty and not so sweet disposition to a successful revamp of Little Red Riding Hood. And it’s quite good to see another take on a character that is so often portrayed as winsome and lamb like. Billy Magnussen doesn’t have much to work with as Rapunzel’s Prince, just like MacKenzie Mauzy as the imprisoned maiden. Johnny Depp contributes a creepy cameo as the predatory Wolf looking to make Red Riding Hood his next meal.

So all in all, Into the Woods has its share of excellent moments partly because of some stylish direction and fine performances. It’s a shame that it couldn’t be more memorable considering all the attributes it had.