Poor Rob Cohen. It looks like his latest movie “The Boy Next Door” will be another flop; even though it stars Jennifer Lopez. If the singer turned actress turned singer was looking for a comeback vehicle, this is not it.
Just like his last film “Alex Cross, ” which was based on the series of thriller novels, the critics have really hated this movie.
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It’s never a good sign when a movie with big stars in it is released in January. The only exception is when the film was at least in partial release in December because its producers wanted it to be eligible for Oscar nominations. January, like September, is the dumping ground for Hollywood stinkers.
Because the big budget movies have all finished their holiday runs the studios hope that the inevitable bombs will still be able to pick up a few bucks at the box office since there is little or no competition.
This apparently is the case with “The Boy next Door” which has something to do with Jennifer Lopez having an affair with a younger man.
The movie review site Rotten Tomatoes only gave it a 15% rating.
Robert Abele wrote in the LA Times, “No good sex goes unpunished in “The Boy Next Door, ” breathless, uninspired January junk that feels like the iffiest bits of a Lifetime movie and late-night cable schlock slapped together. (And not erotically.)”
The New York Times said, “Unflagging in her relaxed appeal, Ms. Lopez never talks down to the often laughably written material, even when the story muzzles her authority-figure character with Claire’s dirty little secret and loses its sense of humor. (It takes forever and a murder before she finally calls 911.) Mr. Cohen, no stranger to delivering pulp product, employs visual clichés as if they were flash cards; no exposed thigh or made-you-jump reveal goes unexploited.”
While the New York Post derisively said, “All it takes to get into her panties is a set of chiseled abs, a gift of a “first edition’’ of the Iliad from a “garage sale’’ and a few lines of hokey love patter (“A woman like you should be cherished’’). J.Lo’s English teacher Claire quickly tumbles into bed with her new 19-year-old neighbor Noah (Ryan Guzman, who is not only a terrible actor but easily looks a decade older), while her teenage son is off on a camping trip with her estranged husband.”
