The Girl Nexxxt Door.

Rating: 7/10 (7 November 2009)

If you've seen the 1983 Tom Cruise sex comedy Risky Business, then you'll no doubt get a strong sense of deja-vu whilst watching The Girl Next Door, for the plot is almost identical, albeit slightly tweaked in places and updated for today's audiences: where Tom Cruise's preppy Joel Goodsen fell in love with a hot hooker, Emile Hirsch's Matthew Kidman hooks up with hot porn star Danielle (Elisha Cuthbert); Risky Business's sleazy antagonist, Guido the killer pimp, becomes adult film producer Kelly (Timothy Olyphant); instead of having the contents of his parents house stolen, Matthew loses a $25,000 fund for foreign student Samnang; and rather than running a brothel to recoup his losses, Matthew and his geeky pals decide to use their new contacts in the adult film biz to turn their luck around.
However, despite screaming 'rip-off' at every turn, it's very hard not to enjoy this film. Director Luke Greenfield handles his material well and the appealing cast all do a great job: Hirsch is perfect as uptight Matthew who eventually learns to cut loose (to paraphrase Joel Goodsen, 'Sometimes you just gotta say 'What the fk!!'); Elisha Cuthbert is absolutely drop-dead gorgeous and oozes sensuality (although she doesn't get nekkid, which is a real shame!); Olyphant is brilliant as he effortlessly switches between charming rogue and utterly menacing villain; and Chris Marquette impresses as Matthew's film-student pal Eli (is it just me, or is this guy a dead ringer for a young John Cusack?).
The Girl Next Door does suffer a little during it's more emotional scenes, which lack conviction, but these less effective moments are easily counterbalanced by the film's genuinely funny moments that capitalise well on the film's lewd premise, including Matthew imagining Danielle getting it on with his parents, a fracas at an adult film convention in Las Vegas, and Matthew's run in with a friend of the family at a lap-dancing club.
Although The Girl Next Door is far from original, and never reaches the levels of perfection achieved by Cruise and Co. (let's face it, Risky Business is a classic of the genre and a very hard act to follow), it passes the time well enough, offering some quality eye candy for us blokes, a bit of mushy, sentimental, lovey-dovey pap for the ladies, a decent pop/rock soundtrack, and a heartwarming outcome for all of its characters.