There are many irritations in our modern world. However, whether you live in a loft, home, condo, or even an actual cave there is nothing as dreaded as having bad neighbors. That is the basic premise of the new film Neighbors from director Nicholas Stoller (whose previous credits start strong but fall off rather quickly: Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008), Get Him to The Greek (2010), and The Five-Year Engagement (2012)) and screenwriters Andrew J. Cohen and Brendan O’Brian. This is their first big screen writing assignment and the two tackle it well considering their lack of credits. There are flaws with the script to be sure; but this is not the train wreck that you might expect from two rookies writing a frat house comedy.
Meanwhile, new neighbors arrive next door. Turns out the new neighbors are a group of fraternity brothers ready to party. The frat includes Teddy (Zac Efron), Pete (Dave Franco), Scoonie (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), and Garf (Jerrod Carmichael). These lovable miscreants just want to have a good time like any other sensible frat bro. This includes a lot of noise and loud music that is bound to displease any nearby neighbors and the Radnor’s are the closest to the frat house.
Thus a battle of sabotage begins between the two groups as they try to get rid of one another that is rather reminiscent of War of the Roses (1989). Both sides of the battle selfishly want what they want and refuse to grow up and be adult about their issues. Both sides take things way too far. Comedy demands the utilization of exaggeration to make the audience laugh at the absurdity on display. Sure. That being said, the pranksters take things even further.
Anyone familiar with Stoller or Rogan’s previous work should be well aware that the humor is graphic, absurd, and juvenile. But most of it is actually funny so I can forgive the bits that just don’t hit the target (i.e. male frontal nudity). From a comedy perspective the film is decent. The gags are predictable, but well done. My biggest complaint about the comedic element is that I saw the funniest and most unexpected gag in the film trailer and that is always a shame as it lessens the impact when actually watching the film itself.
Zac Efron in “Neighbors.” © 2013 – Universal Pictures.
The cast here does a good job with a mediocre script. Rogan and Byrne are likable. The friendship between Efron’s Teddy and Franco’s Pete was nice to see. The two did a perfectly good job of convincing me they were close frat brothers.
The biggest flaw with Neighbors is that the central conflict is between two likeable groups so there is no villain per se. That means there isn’t as much for the audience to really root for and there simply isn’t as much of a climax to the movie as there should be. That is a real shame because as handsome as Efron is, and since he apparently can actually act, he would have made a great villain in the story. I would have loved to hate him and see him get defeated by the oldies next door. Neighbors is ultimately a film that a Seth Rogen fan will enjoy, but sadly it is no Superbad (2007); however, it is no Green Hornet (2011) either.
Steven Gahm
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