Bad Neighbours [US Title Neighbors] (2014)

Review by CJ

Director:
Nicholas Stoller

Starring:
Seth Rogen, Zac Efron, Rose Byrne, Dave Franco, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jerrod Carmichael

Other notable appearances:
The Lonely Island (Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone), Zac Efron’s abs – if you’re interested in that sort of thing, Lisa Kudrow

Running time:
97 mins

Watch this if you liked:
We’re the Millers, Horrible Bosses, The Break-Up

 

Mac (Rogen) and Kelly (Byrne) are college sweethearts with a newborn daughter and a house in an idyllic neighbourhood. Idyllic that is until the Delta Psi Beta fraternity moves into the house next door. Mac and Kelly try to play it cool and befriend the frat brothers, led by Teddy (Efron) and Pete (Franco), but things take a turn for the worse when the couple have to call the police and file a noise complaint against their new party-hard neighbours.

I don’t often laugh-out-loud (lol, if you will) at comedies. Most of the time I can appreciate the humour and may even enjoy the plots, thin as they often are, but not often do they inspire the impulse to chuckle for the world to hear. Bad Neighbours is the first movie since We’re the Millers that has accomplished this. Though, if I’m fair, the laughter inspired by Bad Neighbours was more consistent and less tears-streaming down my face at that one scene with the spider.

One of the things I enjoyed about Bad Neighbours was that they didn’t default to the generic plot formula. They touch on it at points, but overall Bad Neighbours took itself away from the tried and true plot turns, especially as it drew towards the end.

If I’m going to be completely upfront with you, I must admit I didn’t think Zac Efron would be well suited for an adult comedy role and expected him to be carried by Rogen. I was pleasantly surprised to find Efron getting a lot more laughs than I expected. And he does a killer Bale-Batman impersonation.

Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne were very funny in their roles as the parents trying to remain cool and hip while dealing with the fact they’re further along in their lives than they would like.

The only downside to the movie involved the couple’s crazy ex-married best friends who were both a lot less funny in their respective roles and a lot more grating than any other roles in Bad Neighbours.

If you’re expecting an intelligent comedy with sparkling social commentary or biting wit, then Bad Neighbours is probably not exactly what you’re after. If you want a laugh-out-loud comedy filled with dick jokes, dick moulding and just plain dicks, then this is much more likely to please.

Rating: 3.5/5