The Boy Next Door 2015

Alex Pappademas, Grantland: You always have to wonder why anybody says yes to a project like this one, but it's a particularly strange choice on Lopez's part, since she's done her best work in movies that dare to empower her. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: "The Boy Next Door'' wants badly to be a cut-rate "Fatal Attraction,'' but ends up getting more laughs than many comedies. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: By the end, it's not much fun at all, but at least it's over. Read more

Daniel D'Addario, TIME Magazine: The Boy Next Door wastes Lopez's talents, just as much of the schlock classic actresses like Joan Crawford or Bette Davis appeared in wasted theirs. Read more

Andrew Barker, Variety: The film's initial formulaic competence gives way to outright preposterousness rather quickly, hinging on idiot-plot character motivations, "It was only a cat!" jump scares and computer files that may as well be labeled "Evil Schemes, 2012-2014." Read more

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, AV Club: So lurid and campy that it registers as inspired, Rob Cohen's low-budget thriller The Boy Next Door takes a Lifetime Original premise ... and pumps it full of Oedipal references and yellow lighting. Read more

Randy Cordova, Arizona Republic: It's no surprise "The Boy Next Door" is junk. What is disappointing is that it's not fun junk. Read more

Peter Keough, Boston Globe: "The Boy Next Door" may end up as one of the worst movies of 2015, but it is also one of the most entertaining. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: I haven't seen a bigger mess in wide release since Dana Carvey's career-terminating The Master of Disguise. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: I wish "The Boy Next Door" were a different, zingier sort of mediocrity, but whenever it threatens to go the full Zalman King "Two Moon Junction" route, it pulls back and behaves itself and settles for a grindingly predictable series of escalations. Read more

Adam Graham, Detroit News: Rather than being good-bad, "The Boy Next Door" is just plain bad. Read more

Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly: Boy's premise reeks of stalker-movie mothballs, and it's too timid to fully dive into the high camp it hints at. Read more

Sheri Linden, Hollywood Reporter: As torrid affairs-gone-wrong go, this one's not juicy enough and way too predictable. Read more

Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times: Breathless, uninspired January junk that feels like the iffiest bits of a Lifetime movie and late-night cable schlock slapped together. (And not erotically.) Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Whatever charges you can level at the movie, and they are legion, boring isn't one of them. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: It isn't nearly as daring or discomfiting as it could be. It is, however, trashy good fun and impressively steamy. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Even in this dreck ... it comes as a bit of a surprise how comfortable and appealing Lopez is on camera. Read more

Nicolas Rapold, New York Times: Mr. Cohen, no stranger to delivering pulp product, employs visual cliches as if they were flash cards; no exposed thigh or made-you-jump reveal goes unexploited. Read more

David Hiltbrand, Philadelphia Inquirer: This isn't a very demanding role for Lopez, but she still fails to carry it off. In fact, nothing about this film is convincing. It all feels notably artificial. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: It's badly directed, poorly edited, and features some of the most unconvincing acting this side of a soup commercial. Read more

Christy Lemire, RogerEbert.com: The cheese is thick and it smothers everything in "The Boy Next Door," but it's never quite gooey or spicy enough. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: There are many grades of terrible in Hollywood, and this is pretty nearly the worst. Read more

Thomas Lee, San Francisco Chronicle: Why Lopez decided to do this inept, cliche-infested film is anyone's guess. Read more

Kristin Tillotson, Minneapolis Star Tribune: "The Boy Next Door" is a string of situations in which the actors' Job One is keeping straight faces while uttering lines like, "A woman like you should be cherished." Read more

Kevin C. Johnson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: It's unashamedly of the B-movie variety - a quick and easy time-killer. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Globe and Mail: It isn't just bad and ridiculous, it's fulsomely, wholeheartedly and right down-to-its-DNA bad and ridiculous. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: Lawyer-turned-screenwriter Barbara Curry sticks to the basics with her first script, failing to flesh out her characters while indulging in leapfrogging logic that leads to a weirdly abrupt finish. Read more

Inkoo Kang, TheWrap: "Despite a sidelong glance at Guzman's behind, the ass-ploitative nature of 'The Boy Next Door' mostly focuses on Lopez herself, a decision that robs the film of the symbiosis of fear and attraction that makes the erotic thriller such escapist fun." Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: Jennifer Lopez has serious beefcake issues in this lazy, low-budget, not-as-much-fun-as-it-should-be potboiler. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Predictable and foolishly unsuspecting characters react in ways that make you want to shake them. But there's an undeniable sense of silly fun in this erotic thriller. Read more

Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice: It's built for dumb, shivery, sexed-up pleasure, and it delivers, albeit somewhat modestly. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: It's a movie about a young man with an unhealthy mother fixation, but if you go into it expecting something closer to "Mommie Dearest" than "Psycho," you'll probably have a much better time. Read more