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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Widescreen 1.85:1
  • 16:9 Enhanced
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • Commentary - English: Dolby Digital Surround
  Subtitles
    English - Hearing Impaired
  Extras
  • Deleted scenes
  • Theatrical trailer
  • Audio commentary - Director and Actors
  • Featurette
  • Behind the scenes footage
  • Trivia track
  • Gag reel

The Girl Next Door - Uncut Version

/20th Century Fox Home Entertainment . R4 . COLOR . 105 mins . 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment . PAL

  Feature
Contract

Matthew Kidman (Emile Hirsch) is a straight A student and senior class president who has never done anything adventurous or crazy in his life. When the beautiful Danielle (Elisha Cuthbert) moves in next door a friendship flourishes but when Matthew learns that Danielle is actually Athena, a fledgling porn star, things change and Matthews ordered and pre-planned life spins out of control.

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I can't hold it man, the beans, the beans.

The Girl Next Door is your classic boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back story with a twist. These kinds of movies have been labeled as “teen sex romps” and while The Girl Next Door involves teens and sex and a good measure of romping it also involves strippers and porn stars which sets it far apart from your average teen movie. The film also includes some endearing characters and a great story putting it up there with the American Pie trilogy as highlights of the genre.

With only one other major theatrical movie under his belt (The Animal) previous to The Girl Next Door, director Luke Greenfield does a great job of matching the cast with the story and accompanying it with an appropriate musical score. His style and passion for the movie making process and music is reflected in the production and during the audio commentary reminds this reviewer of Cameron Crowe (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Jerry McGuire, Almost Famous) so hopefully the future should be filled with some great movies under his direction.

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I hate guessing birthday presents. Is it an xbox?

This edition of the film is specifically “un-cut” and as such contains scenes not originally included in the theatrical version. The biggest giveaway that this is indeed an un-cut version would be Luke Greenfield mentioning having to do 2 different audio commentaries and a scene where Emile Hirsh is getting a lap dance in a strip club from mostly naked strippers but in the deleted scenes the same strippers are mostly clothed.

"Learn to like it."

  Video
Contract

Presented in the aspect ratio of the original theatrical release of 1.85:1 and is enhanced for widescreen displays. The image quality of the transfer is of a very high standard with no major faults visible.

The scenes in the movie alternate regularly between day and night, the day scenes are bright and clear without appearing washed out and the night scenes are detailed with the black levels remaining solid and consistent without losing detail in shadowed areas.

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Floor sure is gritty.

The only minor fault that could be seen with the video transfer was the occasional compression artifact mostly visible on fast panning shots over solid surfaces, mainly faces and other various body parts, of which there are quite a few. Having said that, flesh tones within the film are consistent and clean and other colour levels are likewise bright and rich.

While the film has no reference worthy scenes as such, the image is definitely approaching reference quality.

  Audio
Contract

The only audio option available on this disc is English in Dolby Digital 5.1 for the main soundtrack and 2.0 for the three commentaries. Subtitle options are limited to English for the main soundtrack along with the English subs for all three commentary tracks.

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No, I'm not that guy from 'Las Vegas'

The musical soundtrack takes centre stage at many times within The Girl Next Door and so the subwoofer and surrounds play as important role in the overall feel of the movie. Luckily the sub and surround channels are used to great effect during scenes where the music is overlaid with the on-screen action. The remainder of the movie is mainly dialogue driven so a clear and sharp audio track through the centre speaker is also important and presented very well.

  Extras
Contract

While not specifically labeled as a special edition this disc certainly comes with the volume of extras that would warrant it being called “special”.

First up we have 3 Audio Commentaries:
Feature Commentary by Director Luke Greenfield
Running for the entire length of the feature Greenfield conveys his passion for movie making and movie soundtracks for the majority of the commentary. It is obvious that he values a good song as much as a good scene and that the combination of both is nirvana for him. It was well worth listening to this commentary because it is all too easy to ignore the intricacies and process involved in producing a movie and soundtrack, Greenfield does a good job of educating.

Scene Specific Commentaries by Emile Hirsch and Elisha Cuthbert
Each actor spends some time commenting on specific scenes, four for Hirsch and five for Cuthbert. The Hirsch commentary comes off a bit dry and dull but Cuthbert is a lot more philosophical and mature, her commentary is very interesting and well worth listening to, a full length commentary would have been nice.

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Yup, you got it babe, that's me!!!

Feature Trivia Track: Revealing the Girl Next Door
By enabling this extra you can watch the whole feature with little coloured popup overlays which contain trivia to do with the movie and obscure topics such as lipstick music and breast implants.

The Eli Experience
Chris Marquette who plays Eli in the film takes a crew and some other cast members to the actual AVN (Adult Video News) awards in Las Vegas and poses as a porn director. The highlight of this feature is Mule (Matt Wiese) walking around bare chested propositioning and embarrassing random men, puerile, but funny.

Gag Reel
Nearly three minutes of the usual gags and behind the scenes footage which has been cleaned up and had a musical track added.

Deleted and Extended Scenes
Just over ten minutes of scenes, most of which haven’t sent he post production process so include the timestamp overlay and various other distractions. Most of these scenes are just alternate takes of existing scenes but still worth spending the ten minutes to take a look at.

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did he say 'are gay'?

Still Gallery
42 still photos from the movie and behind the scenes of cast and crew, presented with a fancy border this is the sort of extra you’ll probably only look at once and wonder why it was included.

Theatrical Trailer
Letterboxed but not 16:9 enhanced this trailer is very well put together.

  Overall  
Contract

While The Girl Next Door will be hated by purists and people who want to be “challenged” by their cinema experience the rest of us can sit back and enjoy the show. All I need is appealing characters and a decent story, match that with a good musical soundtrack and I’m happy enough. The Girl Next Door delivers on all these counts so gets a good rating as a result. Combined with a great set of extras and a brilliant video and audio transfer this disc is definitely worth owning.


  • LINK: http://www.dvd.net.au/review.cgi?review_id=4819
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      And I quote...
    "Right up there with American Pie in the "Teen Sex Romp" genre."
    - Chris Hore
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Pioneer DV-676A
    • Projector:
          BenQ PB6100
    • Receiver:
          Yamaha RX-V995
    • Speakers:
          Wharfedale Diamond
    • Centre Speaker:
          Wharfedale Modus
    • Surrounds:
          Wharfedale Diamond
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard Optical
    • Video Cables:
          Standard Component RCA
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