Funny Movie

Rating: 5/10 (21 November 2004)

Matthew Kidman (Emile Hirsch) is a teen over-achiever from a well-to-do community, who falls for the super sexy girl watching the house next door (Elisha Cuthbert). As they get closer, he finds out that she is secretly a porn star, something that he must try to come to terms with as he suddenly finds himself wit a lot of new male friends.
The premise sounds pretty good and the film turned out to be pretty funny. The story isn't very original though. It's similar to Risky Business as every film critic has bothered to point out. That didn't bother me though since The Girl Next Door is still an entertaining comedy. Some of the jokes were kind of lame and the movie is a little forgettable. After about a week, only a few scenes really stuck with me. The movie remains consistently entertaining during the running time but it doesn't have a long lasting impression on the viewer nor does it have a good repeat value. It's just a harmless teen comedy and it should be approached as one.
The movie works pretty well because of its two appealing leads. Elisha Cuthbert is cool and confident as Danielle. She plays the character pretty well and she's also very pretty. Some people are complaining about Elisha playing the role of a porn star because she is not pretty enough. I strongly disagree, she looks stunning in the movie. Emile Hirsch also gives a good performance as Matthew. His character is likable and somewhat interesting. Tim Olyphant plays Kelly and he gives a pretty funny performance, kind of annoying though. Chris Marquette was just annoying as Eli. His character was supposed to be your stereotypical horny teenager but he just tried too hard to be funny.
Director Luke Greenfield is not that reliable as a director. He was behind that horrible movie called "The Animal" though he surprisingly does a decent job with this movie. He could have shortened the film a little though. 109 minutes was too long for this type of comedy and especially this story. They ran out of ideas and they seemed to be recycling the old ones. The ending was also kind of weak and not as funny as the beginning or middle. Despite this, I still don't understand why this movie bombed at the box office. It wasn't great but it was a fun way to spend two hours and it the movie does keep the audience entertained. In the end, this is one of 2004's best comedies and it's worth checking out. Rating 7/10