Shh…. Just go with it, man
Matt is a nerdy kid who takes the straight and narrow in life. He is trying to get into Georgetown University and is working his tail off to get a scholarship to make this possible. When a new girl named Danielle moves in Matt becomes intrigued. The feeling is mutual as Danielle helps to crack Matt’s hardheaded nerd and cultivate a man who needs to take risks. Things change when Matt finds out through his friend that Danielle is actually an ex-porn star. Things get even more complicated when her porn producer Kelly comes to retrieve his songbird to make more movies. When Matt hears about this he tries to step in to block the move, but Kelly ends up hurting him more than physically. Matt has to figure out a way to get Danielle back and payback Kelly.
The movie is incredibly funny. Sure it’s not going to win any awards anytime soon, but it deserves some attention. The mere concept of a porn star trying to lead a normal life and hook up with a hopeless nerd is simply priceless. It’s not a new concept, but it’s one that has some fine polish on it. The acting in this movie really carries the comedy and story pretty well. The choice of Emile Hirsch (who was up and coming at the time) as Matt was nothing short of perfect. He looks the part of a nerd, he acts nervous and hell he’ll even make you feel tense watching him worry. Playing opposite of that is Elisha Cuthbert as Danielle. There is no denying that this girl is super-hot and she was believable as a young porn star (I mean that with respect, Cuthbert). The two together makes a perfect couple. The chemistry is there as they play their parts perfect; two people needing to get away from their lives. The villain in the film, Kelly (played by Timothy Olyphant), is downright evil. This guy manipulates and does terrible things to get what he wants. Olyphant, who plays the perfect villain in more than a few movies (see Die Hard 4 for details) and is no exception when it comes to playing the sleazy Kelly. Now give some major props to Chris Marquette as Eli the porn obsessed kid. His comedic timing is perfect, just as much as his delivery.
Now, acting and story aside, there are some flaws in the film. The biggest flaw, which was pointed out by my wife (she’s a banker) is the bottoming out of the film’s main plot point. Matt has to raise 25k to get a Cambodian kid over to the U.S. to study at Matt’s high school. Kelly ends up pulling the 25k out of spite from Matt’s bank account and Matt has to make it back before that is found out. The teller of the bank threatens Matt with jail time if the money isn’t returned by the end of the weekend. The flaw here is that Matt wouldn’t get in trouble for the teller not asking Kelly for I.D. before handing him 25k. In fact, the teller would be the one in trouble. This seemed odd and forced, but it’s a huge flaw. That 25k is the catalyst for the end of the movie and the purpose of Matt’s plight.
FACT: Porn drives the blu-ray industry
The movie looked good in HD, not great. I’m not sure how it was transferred, but it certainly didn’t look as good as M*A*S*H or a few other recent blu-rays I’ve reviewed. There were some grainy artifacts in the night shots that really did bring down the quality a smidge. It’s still better looking than DVD, but I’ve seen better HD in the past six months that say this could of/should of been better. As for the audio, there is a great soundtrack attached to this movie and you’ll love it coming out in a DTS-HD form.
As for features, here’s what you’re looking at:
– Audio Commentary
– Scene Specific Commentary by Emile Hirsch
– Scene Specific Commentary by Elisha Cuthbert
– The Eli Experience Featurette
– A Look Next Door Making of-Featurette
– Gag Reel
– Deleted and Extended Scenes
– Red Band GND Trailer “diRRTty”
– “Sex Education” featurette