It’s time for this summer’s R-rated comedy Neighbors to lower our brain cells with humor. The newest flick stars Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, and is directed by Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall). We find couple Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne, with a newborn baby, just moving in to a new neighborhood as they are faced with unexpected difficulties following the establishment of a fraternity house that moves right next door. A serious conflict between the two parties ensues, thus putting the neighborhood in chaos and leaving both parties in a battle of wits and wills that will change them forever.
Neighbors is the newest movie to be ushered into the pantheon of the R-rated college comedy. Following the greats like National Lampoon’s Animal House, Van Wilder, Revenge of the Nerds, and even Back to School, Neighbors joins a list of greats. Now it’s not going to be high on the list, but never the less, it should be on the list. The movie is fun and the positives overshadow the negatives that the movie has here and there.
The actors and the characters are really filled out and memorable. Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne play Mac and Kelly Radner. They just bought their dream home in the perfect neighborhood, and they’re just bringing in the second chapter of their life by having their first child. They’re starting to settle down in their 30’s and leave their 20’s behind, when suddenly they come face to face with their 20’s all over again as Teddy (Zac Efron) moves his whole frat next door with all the stereotypical frat shenanigans along with them.
The two houses try to get along at first, with Rogen and Byrne’s characters trying to relate to the youth of today. This is where the most negative scenes occur in the movie. It’s cringe worthy watching these two adults try to be “hip”. It’s totally played for comedy so they get away with it, but as a 30 something watching, it was painful. It just seems so over used and obvious for the scene. It would have been nice to see something new brought to the table for when 30 something’s try to act younger. There were many “comedy fruit” hanging in this tree, and it seems instead of reaching for a higher joke, they just went for the lowest one they could get.
In the frat house, they act exactly how you would think their characters should. Young 20 something’s out to have a good time and party like no one else. Efron’s character, Teddy, and his best friend Pete (Dave Franco) are trying to get enough money together for the end of the year party so that they may go down in their frat house’s history as the greatest partyers ever. Pete is up for it at first, but soon finds himself not caring as he represents the college graduate that sees his time in college ending. Where Teddy just wants to continue this party forever, which ultimately leads to his breaking point and the war between the houses becomes all he can think about. The movie mangers to show three types of people: The ones ready to grow up, the ones who have, and the ones that can’t. Each is something everyone can relate too.
The movie is full of massively humorous moments, but all have echoes of realism for age groups such as the 30 something’s and the 20’s. You as the viewer see where both sides are coming from, but also see where each has gone wrong. Both Rogen and Efron are excellent in the movie. Both seem to understand the movie they’re in and where the comedy needs to go. Rogen isn’t as over the top as usual, he has his moments, but they’re far and few between. Efron is really trying hard to break his Disney mold, and he does a really good job at showing he’s more than a pretty face. He’s quite a talented actor, shame he keeps picking the “lowest common denominator” movies. We’ll hope he makes better choices later in his career.
Now this is a hard R-rated comedy. This has more F-bombs than most college flicks, loads of drug use, underage drinking, sex, male and female nudity, and so much homoerotism that it borders on becoming a gay porn. But all this is what adds to the humor and the craziness the movie is trying to show. One of the most memorable parts is the frat house is having a Robert DeNiro themed costume party, seeing all the bad and good DeNiro impressions is pretty funny. And the battle in the finale is worth its weight in gold. Just watching Rogen and Efron sword fight with fake male appendages is something you can never unsee, but man is it funny.
Over all this isn’t bad, it’s fun. You know exactly what movie you’re seeing from the start. This isn’t an art piece about the human experience, but the movie does have some growing up moments that do reflect on emotional beats all 20 and 30 something’s go through. It’s a rude, loud, gross-out comedy that may have all the college clichéd beats, but it has good moral moments to break up all the dick jokes. Younger people will love it, people in their 30 will enjoy moments, the 40 something’s will chuckle out how stupid they remember being at that age, and anyone older should just stay away. Neighbors has what this summer needs, a good comedy that you can shut your brain off and enjoy.