Peaceful, Homey
and Comfortable
NOT!!!
Review by Alyn Darnay
Directed by: Nicholas Stiller
Cast: Seth Rogen, Zac Efron, Rose Byrne, Dave Franco, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse.
Imagine a quiet suburban neighborhood, with sweet homes, well-kept lawns, and a host of neighbors that perpetuate that image. Peaceful, warm, homey, and comfortable. Now image you’re an arrested development 30 something couple with a newborn and you take all your money and buy a house there. Imagine trying to coming to terms with these big changes in your life as you learn to deal with a baby. Then, just as everything is beginning to fall into place and you’re adjusting finally, the house next door goes up for sale. Then, on your daily baby stroll you see a lovely gay couple with a child looking at that home with the intent to buy and move in. How wonderful, perfect neighbors, a superb addition to the neighborhood, you can’t wait to get to know them!
And so it comes to pass, only the people who move in are not a beautiful gay couple, but rather the hard drinking, hard partying alpha dogs of the new Delta Psi fraternity house. There goes the neighborhood; there goes your ideal life, your sleep, privacy, safety, homey images, and the value of your home.
Everyone at one time or another has had a run in with a Bad Neighbor. Usually it’s over something small, but here Mac Radner (Rogen), along with his wife, Kelly (Byrne) are the long suffering couple who are forced to declare war on the fraternity house next door and wind up doling out as much as they get with every escalating battle.
I haven’t really enjoyed many of these kind of films, since “Animal Houseâ€, it always seems to me that their jokes and action fall short of what I think makes for a good Comedy. However, “Neighbors†is the exception, it’s vision of intergenerational warfare will make you laugh out loud.
I know, I know, the story is slim, but the film more than makes up for it with a lot of truly funny jokes and rapid fire comic set pieces. Director Nicholas Stoller (‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’ ‘The Five Year Engagement’), shows the kind of restraint you’d get from a very seasoned director, so unlike the broadness of his previous outings, here Stoller keeps everything moving along at an impressive speed that never slows down and continually delivers on its unpredictability. It’s also a big win for first time writers Andrew J. Cohen and Brendan O’Brien.
Rogen is at his best here, and Rose Byrne impressively keeps up with his zaniness and adds a ton of her own potty-mouth humor, while Efron and Franco playing alpha-Bros that act like alpha-Bros take them on with equal amounts of gusto.
My take; Come for the beer pong, stay for the war, you’re going to enjoy every minute of this uproariously funny and deliciously dirty film, go see it!
Rating: 3 3/4 Stars (out of 5) “Neighbors†is Rated R
Running Time: 96 Minutes