Neighbors

Dustin: 3.5 of 5 stars Nick: 2.5 of 5 stars Average: 3 of 5 stars (Woozy canary)

Nick: In Neighbors new parents (Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne) find themselves living next to a fraternity boasting such talents as Zac Efron, Dave Franco and Christopher Mintz-Plasse (McLovin). While having a plot that could have been overwhelmingly funny, it never made me laugh out-of-control (nor even laugh at all).

Dustin: I think you pretty much summed up the plot well in one sentence, but I thought this movie was funny enough. The jokes didn’t come as rapid-fire as other comedies of its ilk (Knocked Up, Superbad), but it delivered enough for me to recommend it.

Nick: I smiled a lot because there was a lot of good ideas, but not executed well enough to earn a laugh. Is this the first comedy we’ve reviewed? I’ve always found comedy to be the hardest to agree upon because it’s the most subjective of all genres.

Dustin: We’ve reviewed other comedies, here are some links to make our site more “sticky”: The Hangover Part III, Cockneys vs Zombies, The World’s End, Bad Grandpa, Anchorman 2, After Earth. I can understand why some people would be put off by some jokes in this movie. One character, Jimmy (Ike Barinholtz) used the N-word twice. The first time in an impression of Barack Obama, which was incredibly good, but then he dropped the N-word at the end, the joke being Obama wouldn’t talk like that. I laughed more at the shock. Then he used it again later, quoting a rap song. But the lyrics coming from a white guy made me cringe. Maybe that was the filmmaker’s intention, but I can understand why some people wouldn’t like the joke, even though they “got it.”

Nick: I never feel offended, though I as well sometime cringe. But hardly anything in this film made me laugh like past Nicholas Stoller movies (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Get Him to the Greek). There was a moment when the couple and Jimmy were making phone calls doing impersonations of celebrities to a radio station in order to get so many people at the frat’s party that they will be kicked out of their house. Rogen does a Julia Child and Ray Romano impression, which is funny because who would go to a party just because one of them would be there. Beyond that and the idea of the Robert De Niro impersonation party (totally going to steal that idea) nothing was particularly rememorable.

Dustin: I thought this was better than most movies in its genre: which I’ll dub the culminating-in-a-giant-party-that-wraps-up-everything-Hollywood-trope genre. As far as party/drinking movies go, it was a notch higher than could be expected. There was some real emotional depth in the scenes that showed how anxious Zac Efron was about graduating and having to go out into the real world with his less-than-stellar GPA and nothing to show for his years of college than a lot of parties. The emotion was somewhat muted, but there. It never felt forced or shoe-horned in like last year’s 21 & Over, which had a suicide subplot that just made the humorless movie even more depressing.

Nick: The emotional scenes felt forced to me. The emotional scenes don’t establish themselves. They last for one scene or are focused on characters that you don’t really get to know. Such as the “break-up” of our married couple which lasts all but 10 seconds and as you say Zac Efron’s one dimensional character who is given an arc where he is afraid of what’s after college. Though the idea is good the script never follows Efron’s character enough to where any emotion can be had. Although where his character ends up is very clever!

Dustin: I agree the break-up segment felt rushed. I get the impression there were some scenes that ended up on the cutting room floor there. I felt the same way when they introduced the character “Assjuice.” They never established he had been abused as a pledge until they needed him for the plot. But I still think Zac Efron did well with his role, and the film added some depth without it feeling cynical or forced. Although, what’s with all these bro comedies culminating with men telling each other “I love you”?

Nick: OK, that party was pretty funny when Efron and Dave Franco quote movies to tell each other how much they love one another. They used a lot of lines from Good Will Hunting, and I noticed some other references, but movie quotes have never been a skill set of mine. I also enjoyed the 5 minutes worth of Lisa Kudrow as the Dean and whoever played the couple’s realtor.

Dustin: If one thing was forced, it was the epilogue where Seth Rogen and Zac Efron made up. It was funny enough, and I understand the filmmakers wanted the audience to leave happy, but I just couldn’t imagine them becoming “cool” so quickly after everything that went down.

Nick: I’m a little tired of jokes referencing doctors being stupid towards their patients. It seems to happen frequently in comedy shows and movies. I’m referring to the scene where the doctor said, “Your kid has HIV.” It can be pretty funny at times but that was the least inspired funny doctor visit.

Dustin: This was a better-than-average comedy that should appeal to it’s intended audience. I’d recommend it if you liked Judd Apatow’s films or any other Seth Rogen comedy.

Nick: I like or love all of Apatow’s films and most of Seth Rogen’s, and yet I barely recommend Neighbors.