Is Jennifer Lopez a B-Movie Queen? We Take a Tour Through the Schlock
Jennifer Lopez returns to the big screen on Friday with The Boy Next Door, in which she plays a recently separated mother who has a brief fling with a much younger neighbor (Ryan Guzman). He naturally becomes dangerously obsessed with her. Lopez has tried all sorts of films over the years, but she’s always seemed more at home in the exploitation-flavored B movies in which she gets to have a little campy fun. The Boy Next Door firmly fits into that tradition. So in celebration of her schlocky return, we thought we’d look back at some of Lopez’s earlier so-bad-they’re-good roles.
Wesley Snipes and Lopez in Money Train
Money Train (1996)
Lopez’s first major film role was in this action comedy, which reteamed White Men Can’t Jump stars Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson. The pair play foster brothers and transit cops who plot to rob the titular subway cars, while Lopez plays the rookie that they both fall for. As you might guess in a ’90s buddy-cop movie, Lopez’s role is woefully underwritten, but the film gets by on the easy, potty-mouthed chemistry between Snipes and Harrelson.
Lopez and Ice Cube in Anaconda
Anaconda (1997)
This schlock-tastic B movie sees Lopez as part of a documentary crew on the Amazon River — she’s joined by Ice Cube, Eric Stoltz, and Owen Wilson — who are menaced by a giant, man-eating snake. A key influence on the Sharknados of the world, it’s an undeniably bad movie full of cringeworthy dialogue and ludicrous effects. But it has just the right amount of grisly kills, and just enough of a sense of humor about itself, particularly when it comes to Jon Voight’s Quint–meets–Kurtz performance.
Sean Penn and Lopez in U-Turn
U-Turn (1997)
You’d think that a movie directed by Oscar-winning Platoon director Oliver Stone would be more respectable than the other kind of films that Lopez was making around this time. If anything though, U-Turn was even trashier than Anaconda. A neo-noir in which drifter Sean Penn becomes caught between murderous married couple played by Lopez and Nick Nolte, the film’s a bit of a mess, but has plenty of style, and Lopez is one of the film’s higher points. (Well, her and the scene with Billy Bob Thornton as a demented car mechanic, when he plays solo Twister.)
Lopez in Enough
Enough (2002)
Lopez wasn’t done with exploitation fare yet, though: Five years later came this film, the closest thing on her résumé to The Boy Next Door. Directed, oddly, by 7-Up series helmer Michael Apted, it’s a sort of glorified Lifetime movie mixed with Sleeping With The Enemy and Kill Bill. Lopez plays a battered woman on the run who learns Krav Maga so she can kill her psychotic, abusive husband. The actress is solid and committed in her part, but the script’s caught awkwardly between being a serious drama and a B movie.
Watch the trailer for Anaconda:
