Neighbors:
In a quiet suburban neighborhood, the Radners, a young-ish couple with a new baby, are settling in to their new lives as parents. But when an obnoxious frat house moves in next door, they can sense trouble. When they call the cops on the frat for partying too hard one night, the fraternity brothers see no other way to get revenge then to prank and haze the family endlessly. The Radners also see no other choice than to beat the frat boys at their own game. Now, I gotta say, going into this movie, I had low expectations. Any movie where everyone says "This movie is hilarious! A must-see!" I always get suspicious, as it's usually not true. Either the movie is bad, or it's just okay. This one was kind of the latter, and kind of not. It wasn't nearly as good as everyone says, it's no Bridesmaids or Horrible Bosses and especially not the brilliant Team America, but it's satisfying enough. I might watch it on DVD or On Demand, but not in theaters again. Seth Rogen plays Mac Radner, aka Seth Rogen. He's great at what he does, but let's face it, it's just Rogen being himself, but a little more over-the-top. Rose Byrne is the real star of the film as his wife. Despite being way out of his league, they make a good on-screen couple, and she is really great in this movie. Not saying she wasn't phenomenal in other stuff (Bridesmaids, Insidious, Damages, X-Men: First Class, etc.) but she is actually surprisingly good at comedy, I was kind of shocked. She's also really hot, so that's a plus. Zac Efron has proven himself to be a legitimate comedic actor because of his performance in this movie. The dark days of shit like High School Musical and 17 Again are long behind him. He's kind of a character who you can relate to, but hate at the same time. He's a douchebag, but at the same time, kind of a nice guy. That's one of the good things about the movie: it doesn't really tell you which side to pick, it lets you decide. They could have easily made Efron and company out to be the stereotypical douchebag jock bad guys, but they decided to go neutral, which I really liked. Dave Franco, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jerrod Carmichael, Lisa Kudrow, Carla Gallo, Ike Barinholtz, Craig Roberts (Submarine), Hannibal Burgess, and Ali Cobrin all do satisfactory jobs in supporting roles, and Franco and Efron have a pretty interesting relationship in the movie, and they provide an emotional aspect to the story I wasn't expecting at all. The Lonely Island (Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone), Jake Johnson, and the Workaholics crew (Adam DeVine, Blake Anderson, Anders Holm, and Kyle Newacheck) all make cameos in flashbacks to the 1930s, 70s, and 80s in Efron's speech on the history of the frat house early on in the film. Overall, the cast was fine. Nicholas Stoller (director of Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek, and writer of The Muppets) directs this movie, and does a good job. It's not as good as Sarah Marshall or Muppets, but it's not nearly as mediocre as Greek. The writing by Brendan O'Brien and Andrew J. Cohen is good. It's got some good jokes, some great emotional heart, and some cool pop culture references (in particular, TV references, such as Game of Thrones, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and Girls). The movie does have a lot of good jokes, even though some go a little too over-the-top, but overall it was enjoyable. "But Matt," you may say, "why do you say it's mediocre in the title? Just for views?" Partly, if I'm being honest, but also because it doesn't deserve the praise it gets. It's fun, it's funny, it's kind of fresh-ish, but overall it's just okay. Disclaimer: I did see this movie with my parents, which made the whole experience very uncomfortable and hard to enjoy, which may be why I have a slightly skewed view of the movie. Overall, Neighbors (or Bad Neighbors if you live outside the U.S.) is a funny, pretty enjoyable, and somewhat heartfelt comedy that is worth seeing at least once, but maybe not in theaters. 3.5/5 stars.
(Image: Wikipedia)
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