The Girl Next Door is a cross between Weird Science, Cinderella , Can't Buy Me Love and a little bit of Boogie Nights. As I've said before, I'm a sucker for High School movies and this one is no exception. It's another boy meets girl plot, but this one has a twist where the 'girl next door' turns out to be a  p o r n  star.  Elisha Cuthbert plays Danielle, the aforementioned star who finds a soul mate in Matthew (Emile Hirsch) because he just sees her for who she is...a regular girl. Kinda. Obviously she is keeping her other life as an adult actress a secret and is able to connect with someone that doesn't look at her like a piece of meat. The problem arises when Matthew finds out what she does for a living and suddenly his life...as well as his two friends Eli (Chris Marquette) and Klitz (Paul Dano) as they get caught up in the crazy adventures associated with the industry and have to deal with her Producer played by Timothy Olyphant.

The movie itself isn't as seedy as the trailer or press release will have you believe. It's another typical 'High School' romance flick where the schoold nerds (Matt, Eli and Klitz) become popular by association to  p o r n  stars. It's an okay movie and I've always enjoyed it for what it is. Even though I own this bad boy, I don't know if I would say its a Buy. Definitely worth a Rent. As for the Unrated Version, it does have more skin and sin in it.  Also, the soundtrack is off the hook awesome. I liked it so much that I got the soundtrack shortly after seeing the movie.

You know, it's been so long since I've watched this movie... I think the last time I saw it was before Paul Dano blew up.

I remember it being a cute movie and trying to be the next Risky Business (which I didn't even see until recently) but it, to me, didn't feel very risky.  And Cuthbert seems to kinda cute and pure and honestly kinda young to be a **** star like that (and it didn't help that she didn't show anything, I don't even think they used a body double.  It's one of those things that nowadays after all these more extreme hard-R comedies seems quaint and ancient... and does little service to the realism of the story).

I do remember liking Emile Hirsch in the flick as well but I couldn't tell you his character's name or anything he did.

I still haven't "gotten" Timothy Olyphant yet.  I didn't like him in Die Hard, I thought he looked like a beige frog in Hitman, I don't remember what he did in this movie... though I didn't see his show, I'm sure that's what'll turn things around for me.

BTW, I haven't seen "Ruby Sparks" yet but when I saw the preview I just thought "Paul Dano is turning into James Spader.  And I think I'm okay with that."

Okay, I rewatched this last night for the first time in ages and remember why I don't see it very often.

I think I was watching it with a critical eye because I kept thinking of connections to "Risky Business" (you notice that Emile Hirsch's name is Matthew KIDMAN?).

I forgot about D-Elisha's (see what I did there) cute little giggle and smile, it's very sweet, and you remember how I was about her not being naked in the movie (what sort of por no has a nekkid reveal from the BACK!?) and I think I noticed for the first time that the figure in the window was a body double too (you think she could have shown more, you know?).  It's sort of weird, like the actress herself didn't want us to even IMAGINE her naked (and I might add when you see her with ACTUAL po rn stars, she sticks out like a sore thumb, she's clearly not one of them... and I'm also a little annoyed that those characters are portrayed as empty-brained giddy jigglers, while I'm sure there's a little truth to that, it seems a little too male fantasy, you know?)

But the most annoying thing I found was that once Ollyfantastic shows up, all those character traits of D-Elish that I like just sort of went away, she turned into an interesting character and agent of change for Emile (young Emile!) and just became... honestly, she felt like an accessory to him.  I hate that.  I feel like Ollyfantastic was bogarting her role.  Almost like D-Elish couldn't show up for shooting some days and Olly took over what she needed to do.  While he DOES do things that Elisha wouldn't (like get Emile his first lap dance with that family friend, which I had totally forgotten about), I think Emile's an idiot for taking cues from someone Elisha clearly doesn't like... especially since he comes off like her pimp (part of me thinks he should have suggested Elisha get on stage at the club-- just to freak Emile out).

I also totally forgot drugged-out Emile, that was funny.  Though his "whole off-the-cuff speech turns out to be the best one" thing is getting old, in reality it would have been a somewhat heartfelt but long, rambling, incoherent mess, which would have been more realistic.

You know, since I was listening to Pretty Woman the night before, how great would it have been if we had gotten the tub scene (either one) with Elisha?  You know, they get that motel room and have a fight, what if that was inverted and said something like "people who live in town don't get motel rooms, tonight we're different people" and did something off the wall and crazy, Elisha could have THOUGHT they were going there to get it on but Emile turns it on its' ear and set up a whole sweet and innocent date.  Have a loud, crazy, messy night that they wouldn't do at home.  Marshmallow gun fight, singing along to Indian music videos...

And can someone tell me how old Elisha was meant to be in this flick?