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Thus, "The Boy Next Door" is condemned to the movie equivalent of a bad neighborhood - January - where flops like this and Universal's equally disastrous "Blackhat" are not so much released as written off. Soon, they find themselves lashing out and leaving a trail of bodies behind them. But they'd have to be perfectly executed to work. Drama Thriller Roy and Bo leave their small California town the weekend after graduation for a short road trip to Los Angeles. The basics might be tried and true - a creepy, young, obsessive hunk who has an insidious influence on her son, her body and her life. No, don't start picking apart the logic here, the clues everybody misses, the reactions that fly in the face of reason when Noah starts showing his hand. Guzman is an equally fine specimen, though he's a bit light on the menace and over-the-top in his playing of anger mismanagement. She plays the part like someone imitating a TV teacher, from her classroom posture to her delivery. She's all about the makeup, the hair, the clothes. Lopez is a gorgeous woman with the same mousy voice she came into the movies with 20 years ago. The seduction scene plays and is photographed like softcore porn, the jokes are clunky and every punch is telegraphed, given away long before the fist is balled up. This isn't natural material for director Rob Cohen, who peaked with "Dragon" back in the last millennium ("Stealth" is kind of where he's been ever since). So we just sit and wait for the pot to boil and some poor bunny, or its equivalent, to get cooked. "I got caught up in the moment." He's not having it.Īnd since we've seen flashes of Noah's temper, watched him take her son out for pistol target practice and seen Claire wonder if someone is sneaking into her house, we know what "The Boy Next Door" is capable of. Her instant regret leads to a lame excuse.