A poor man's Risky Business for Generation Y

Rating: 2/10 (24 February 2004)

We just saw a sneak preview of this movie, which is due to be released in mid-March.
A shy idealistic young man named Matthew (Emile Hirsch), who gets into Georgetown about a month before graduating from high school, is nonetheless suffering from the lack of excitement in his life. All that will change when he gets caught sneaking a pick at his sultry next-door neighbor Danielle (Elisha Cuthbert), who just happens to be a porn star trying to quit the business. They quickly fall in love and Danielle takes Matthew for a wild ride that teaches him that "sometimes you just got to say what the f**k!"
This is clearly a rather poor remake of the 1983 picture Risky Business, which featured Tom Cruise and very young and breathtaking Rebecca De Mornay. This new version does not stand up to Risky Business in terms of either the story or cinematography and Elisha Cuthbert is no match for Rebecca De Mornay. Where De Mornay's character was sexy, sophisticated, and real, Cuthbert's character does not extend much beyond her good looks. At times, I was made with the director of this movie for trying to remake a very good movie and screwing up royally. The scene between Matthew and Danielle in the limo (a cheap and uninspired knockoff of the De Mornay-Cruise scene in the Chicago subway) was just atrocious.
To be fair, this movie has a few very funny moments, and the actors playing Kelly (Danielle's producer) and Eli (Matthew's friend Eli) did a great job. But there are simply not enough funny moments in that movie to justify spending two hours of your life watching it.