Review of The Boy Next Door (2015) by Orlando O — 05 Feb 2015

What makes a movie that has a redundant stalker plot like many other lifetime channel movies worth watching? Is it Jennifer Lopez steamy erotic scene with Ryan Guzman? Or is it watching the characters making stupid choices that lead to even worse outcomes? I have to say in this Rob Cohen's film which most of his latest works has been quite dull like his Alex Cross film, The Boy Next Door film has some entertaining moments when it comes to watching Ryan Guzman trying to wreck havoc on Lopez's character.

The plot is easy to say the base line that has been done before but with Rob Cohen's direction. His film had some erotic moments that play out as Claire (Jennifer Lopez) separated from her husband after his incident with having an affair. She is a school teacher and living with her only son Kevin (Ian Nelson). Then, here comes Noah (Ryan Guzman) who aids in mechanical house work or doing favors by picking her son up and befriending him. A lonely night leads Claire and Noah to a one-night stand, which he fanatically becomes obsessed over her.

It is not one of Cohen's worse films, but it did have some decent thrills and some fun chemistry with Jennifer Lopez and Ryan Guzman. Sure, they had fun with their roles, and sad to say, it is Lopez's improvement over her acting compare to her other recent films. John Corbett and Ian Nelson gave dull performances with flat dimensions to their characters as Claire's husband and son.

The direction does fall for that typical stalker thriller, when characters make mistakes. When Claire is trying to save her family from Noah, every action and choice she makes does lead the situation in a disastrous outcome. That is how most of these thrillers are scripted to be, but overall The Boy Next Door may have bad moments and some decent performance; it does become entertaining to see Jennifer Lopez and Ryan Guzman play out there characters.