Luke Greenfield
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It also enhanced the bad girl/good boy template in ways whose ripples have been felt in Hollywood for decades, with The Girl Next Door often being referred to as "Risky Business for the next generation."
Seen from an angle, this pop art reveals more thematic riskiness than its cinematic offspring, most obviously the films of John Hughes (whose Ferris Bueller caricatures Risky Business while shamelessly ripping off its jaw-dropping automotive sacrifice) and Luke Greenfield's The Girl Next Door.
But unfortunately there's no one to prosecute in the case of "The Girl Next Door," which seems mainly about ripping off 1983's "Risky Business" without attribution, right down to its awkward teenage hero's tighty whities.
As directed by Luke Greenfield from a script by Stuart Blumberg, David Wagner and Brent Goldberg, "The Girl Next Door" is a coming-of-age movie that borrows liberally from one of the most influential films of the genre - "Risky Business."
A character-driven, cleverly risqué teen sex farce that has much more in common with "Risky Business" (the genre's high-water mark) than it does with the lowbrow body-fluid antics of the post- "American Pie" era, "The Girl Next Door" stars eye-popping Elisha Cuthbert (from TV's "24") as every nerdy teenager's dream come true: an alluringly sexy, accessibly sweet porn star who's just looking for a nice, normal boyfriend.
It’s a simpler, more disposable item, a fitfully funny buddy vehicle for two New Girl stars in the vein of 1986’s Armed and Dangerous.
In New Girl actors Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr., meanwhile, it boasts an instantly winning double act that, at its best, recalls the lightning-in-a-bottle chemistry of Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in the Lethal Weapon series.
There are wink-wink, nod-nod references to various dead-serious (and not so serious) cops-and-killers thrillers, including an inspired allusion to, of all things, “Reservoir Dogs.”
In tone and temperament, The Girl Next Door owes a greater debt to films like Risky Business than to the Animal House-inspired comedies that have grown in popularity over the last five years.
Like Melanie Griffith's reckless, self-indulgent character in Something Wild, Danielle is a catalyst for change in Matthew's uninteresting life.
The spiritual brother of "Let's Be Cops," in a way, is stoner comedy "Pineapple Express," in which Seth Rogen and James Franco find themselves in over their heads and on the run from a villain who wants to do them harm.
Alas, this bid for the same back-to-school, box-office earnings as recent R-rated hits like We’re the Millers, Pineapple Express and Tropic Thunder means that a film about the willful abuse of authority was hitting theatres last weekend, just as last week’s Ferguson, Mo., shitshow was capturing the nation’s attention.
Oddly, this section reminded me of the thrilling sense of discovery Tobey Maguire enjoys in the first “Spider-Man” movie as he tests his abilities and pushes his boundaries post-spider bite.
When the movie tries to show off their superhuman powers, it often turns downright goofy: when Edward sped off, carrying Bella piggyback, I was surreally reminded of a scene in Rob Schneider's The Animal.
His bipolar Karl is reminiscent of the Timothy Olyphant character in The Girl Next Door - friendly one moment, murderous the next.
Television writer Jennie Snyder ('Gilmore Girls,' '90210') has adapted Emily Giffin's novel (which is itself a different spin on the Julia Roberts movie "My Best Friend's Wedding") and it's the kind of story with two kinds of people - smart ones who do stupid things and irresponsible party animals.
The vibe they’re going for here is “Super Troopers”- a bunch of idiot policemen goofing off, in ways that are never violent and mostly harmless.
First-time director Olivia Wilde has plenty of experience acting in films, all the way back to 2004’s The Girl Next Door (the one about the prostitute, not the one about the real-life porn star—and they say there are no good roles for women!?).
Furthermore, they try to stick up a pizza-delivery guy (who may or may not be an actual serial killer), and they get sneakily “dosed” by said insane girlfriend, a la Timothy Olyphant’s character dosing Emile Hirsch’s character with ecstasy in “The Girl Next Door” (another high school movie).
If you’re one of the two or three people who still pine for another “Police Academy” movie, “Let’s Be Cops” may be your cup of tea, even though the buddies played by Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans, Jr. are just pretend fuzz and not the real thing.
Police Academy, Hot Fuzz, and, of course, Beverly Hills Cop are all prime examples of what a cop comedy can do when it's on its game.
A far bigger problem plagues Let's Be Cops, and it's one that has plagued almost every cop comedy from the (admittedly terrific) Beverly Hills Cop to The Heat to Ride Along .
Police Academy, Hot Fuzz, and, of course, Beverly Hills Cop are all prime examples of what a cop comedy can do when it's on its game.
"The Girl Next Door" is a movie full of contradictions that plays like a bad "The Sure Thing" melded uncomfortably together with an exploitative "Risky Business."
The girls have their princess movies, the boys their visits to the Traci Lords Tutoring School, with Cuthbert's porn star making Julia Roberts' Pretty Woman look like a filthy degenerate by comparison.
The crime subplot has derailed many a promising comedy; I wished, for instance, when sitting through Date Night that the movie would forget about its mobster storyline and just let Steve Carell and Tina Fey riff and improvise.
Neither of these dopes appears to have seen "21 Jump Street," "Date Night" or the "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" episode in which the gang impersonates cops.
For a moment you think Greenfield might play out the action over the course of a night, After Hours style, but instead the promise of fast-paced comedy fizzles as the film stretches its one-note gag for all its worth (as it turns out, not much).
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
Directed by Amy Heckerling
influenced The Girl Next Door (2004)
Themes
Luke Greenfield, breaking from Rob Schneider vehicles, has directed a smart teen flick comparable to Fast Times at Ridgemont High and The Last American Virgin in its presentation of high school as a dungeon of sexual self-torture for everyone who isn't a lettered jock.