Neighbors-2014

Director Nicholas Stoller

Starring Zac Efron, Seth Rogen

Scott’s Review #229

Reviewed March 15, 2015

Grade: F

By far one of the worst movies I have seen, Neighbors (2014) is a silly, redundant, nonsensical, plain-old bad film. Whoever thought this film was a good idea and green-lit it should be examined.

Successful comedies, even raunchy, slapstick comedy, have perfect comic timing, likable characters the audience roots for, and at least a shred of creativity and originality.

Neighbors has none of these qualities.

Bridesmaids (2011) is a modern raunchy comedy that works and is hysterical; sadly, Neighbors is a far cry from Bridesmaids.

Neighbors stars Seth Rogen, a familiar face in the slapstick comedy genre, and Rose Byrne as Mac and Kelly Radner, a married couple in their thirties with a newborn baby named Stella.

Former college party animals, the two live in a college town and try to raise their daughter.

One day, Delta Psi Beta, a fraternity known as one of the rowdiest frats, moves into the house next door to the Radners and begins causing chaos with their never-ending parties.

Teddy (Zac Efron) leads the frat.

Initially, the Radners and Teddy strike up mutual respect, but a misunderstanding involving the police being called one night ruins their relationship.

The rest of the film focuses on Mac and Kelly’s attempts to get the fraternity out of their house by sabotaging parties and pitting frat brothers against each other, causing hijinks and war between parents and college kids.

If Neighbors is an attempt to harken back to the days of delicious college comedies such as Animal House (1978) or American Pie (1999), the film fails on every level.

It is simply not funny.

By this point, the plot is so unoriginal, and the jokes are so worn out in similar films (bathroom humor, frat jokes, drug jokes, male and female anatomy jokes) that if you have seen one Seth Rogen film, you have seen them all.

He is a one-trick pony and has become what Adam Sandler became- tired and dull.

Rose Byrne’s annoying character made me think she was using a poor Australian accent, only to realize she’s Australian. This is not a testament to Ms. Byrne’s acting ability.

The protagonists are quite irritating and not likable. What is the rooting value? Mac and Kelly are irresponsible parents.

They presumably leave Stella at home to visit the frat house and wind up getting drunk and high, staying out late, and waking up early the next day.

Kelly attempts to feed Stella using tainted breast milk, which leads us to an unfunny scene between Mac and Kelly focusing on Kelly’s vein-popping breasts, which makes no sense anyway.

Other suspensions of disbelief and logic pop up left and right.

Why would the police reveal to the fraternity the names of those who had called to complain about them and, after catching the Radners in a lie, tell them never to call the police again?

How unrealistic.

Mac and Kelly live in a college town, and the risk of a fraternity or sorority being close never occurred to them. They acted surprised that college students existed.

The wonderful Lisa Kudrow is cast in a ridiculous role as the college Dean, but it’s completely wasted on a hysterical, bubble-headed, dumb character.

If I had to give Neighbors (2014) a positive, it would be that Zac Efron does a halfway decent job portraying his character, Teddy, and he does have a good deal of acting talent (think The Paperboy from 2012).

I am being quite generous and looking for a bright side to a train wreck.

The film is poor.