Though the television ads and press materials for “The Girl Next Door” say nothing about a remake, one is overwhelmed at times by the unmistakable stench of déjá vu.
Nod inwardly if this sounds familiar: Well-behaved but secretly frustrated prepster (Emil Hirsch from “The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys”) meets a sexy tradeswoman and launches a “risky business” to financially groom his path to adulthood. Hirsch never lip-syncs to Bob Segar in his tighty-whities but the dissimilarities end there.

Like most uncredited “reimagings,” this one is generally inferior to its predecessor, with one notable caveat: Elisha Cuthbert (“24”) is light-years hotter than Rebecca DeMornay, Tom Cruise’s unchaste paramour in the previously-alluded-to “Risky Business” (1983). As penitent porn star Danielle, Cuthbert slinks into upper-middle-class suburban America, improbably takes a shine to runtish, over-achieving Matthew Kidman (Hirsch) and helps the kid whip up a scheme to pay off a debt to Kelly (Timothy Olyphant, playing the Joe Pantoliano role from “Risky”), her Svengali/boyfriend producer. As adolescent male fantasies go, Cuthbert is about as perfect as they come — gooey and inviting, like a Twix candy bar that somebody left in the sun.

As a college-bound social-nothing who frets that his prime frolicking years are passing him by, Hirsch is also good (sometimes he resembles a shorter, more composed Billy Crudup), but our sympathy for the character gradually evaporates as his adventures become increasingly derived and contrived. By the end of it, he’s been transformed into the worst kind of cliché — the slick, sports-car-driving turd who has life wired like a phone exchange. Co-writers David Wagner and Brent Goldberg seem to have a soft spot for such characters, having previously penned the wholly unwatchable “Van Wilder” (2002).

Recycled elements aside, “The Girl Next Door” is at times wildly funny and not altogether insubstantial, mostly due to director Luke Greenfield’s satirical, “Heathers”-style swipes at the high school experience. Watching one of Matthew’s classmates whip a pep rally into a mindless froth, we’re reminded of how ridiculously hormonal that phase of life can be and it’s déjá vu all over again.