Neighbors (2014)
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Critics Consensus: With plenty of bawdy humor evenly spread between its well-matched stars, Neighbors earns its R rating -- and filmgoers' laughs.
Critics Consensus: With plenty of bawdy humor evenly spread between its well-matched stars, Neighbors earns its R rating -- and filmgoers' laughs.
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Movie Info
Seth Rogen, Zac Efron and Rose Byrne lead the cast of Neighbors, a comedy about a young couple suffering from arrested development who are forced to live next to a fraternity house after the birth of their newborn baby. Neighbors is directed by Nick Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Get Him to the Greek). (c) Universal- Rating:
- R (for pervasive language, strong crude and sexual content, graphic nudity, and drug use throughout)
- Genre:
- Comedy
- Directed By:
- Nicholas Stoller
- Written By:
- Andrew Jay Cohen , Brendan O'Brien , Andrew J. Cohen
- In Theaters:
- May 9, 2014 Wide
- On DVD:
- Sep 23, 2014
- US Box Office:
- $150.1M
Cast
-
Rose Byrne
as Kelly Radner -
Zac Efron
as Teddy Sanders -
Elise Vargas
as Stella -
Dave Franco
as Pete -
Christopher Mintz-Pl...
as Scoonie -
Lisa Kudrow
as Dean Carol Gladstone
Related News & Features
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New on DVD & Blu-Ray: Neighbors, The Rover, and More
– Rotten Tomatoes
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Critic Reviews for Neighbors
All Critics (198) | Top Critics (44) | Fresh (144) | Rotten (54) | DVD (2)
The young married couple does something cruel, and then the idiot frat guys next door respond, and back and forth it goes. I laughed, but not uproariously and not often enough.
It's Apatow without the Apatow, all ornaments and no tree.
As as tensions escalate, Teddy and Peter's partnership proves just as central and perhaps more vulnerable than Mac and Kelly's. Score one for growing up.
Rogen's always a dominating presence, but [Byrne], who showed her comic chops in Bridesmaids, comes close to stealing the movie here, in an uncorked performance full of volatile, liberating mischief.
One of the great surprises of Neighbors is both the gentle way with which it handles a nimrod party animal like Teddy and how good Efron is at playing him.
It's gross, all right, but rarely funny -- unless jokes about alcohol-laced breast milk is your thing.
"Neighbors" may not be an all-out disaster, but it is an unfunny comedy that just can't find any jokes that really hit the mark. As a result, it's a rather dull film that wastes a potentially hilarious premise.
At least this comedy goes well beyond the bunch of creative revenge ploys that these next-door nemeses wreak on each other. Neighbors isn't straight-As, bring-down-the-house smart-funny, but it's no drop-out, sprawling, lame block party of a flick either.
It operates as a genuinely funny, but not obnoxiously course, mediation on the bumpy and uncertain transition to adulthood.
Even if the story meanders in a predictable direction, it features several inspired comic moments.
You either agree to partake in the beer pong of a plot before laying down your money or stay home.
Though Nicholas Stoller's shortest movie to date, Neighbors is as unfocused and undisciplined as anything within the director's seriously erratic filmography...
I'd love to see a movie with these two paired up again, one that doesn't rely on cruelty to garner laughs.
Tries to be a cross between "Animal House" and "Old School" but, sadly, is more like a second-rate "Van Wilder" sequel.
Bad Neighbours makes the occasional comedic stumble but thankfully, it has more than enough energy to make it to the finish line.
It's Byrne who's Rogen's partner in crime, and she's the brains behind the operation ... a refreshing change of pace in a genre that usually relegates ladies to the nag role.
Even the snobbiest snobs in Neighbors turn out to be closeted slobs, and it's much funnier as a result.
The good news is that with Neighbors, you get the movie you're promised, and it's funny; the better news is that Neighbors is also so much smarter than that ; its high points far outshine the low ones,
[Rose Byrne] turns in the kind of film-stealing work here that absolutely just *has to* set her on the road to persistent stardom.
A grossout comedy that parties hard
Like a series of bad Saturday Night Live sketches, you keep hoping that the next bit will find the comedic mojo. Instead, one's funny bone remains unmoved.
The kind of movie where one is frequently told to park one's brain at the door. I have no doubt this would help, but even at the door, my brain would have raised objections.
Neighbors, the latest of several movies to use that same title, attempts, yet again, to cash in on culture-clash of ordinary folks vs. wild folks.
Banal riffs on pop culture themes vie for laughs with depressing jokes about tits, balls and dicks. The low-point has Byrne (who I hope was well paid) being "milked" by Rogen. Whatever happened to comedy?
Actually, while the script is strong -- the episodic structure means everyone can improv away without derailing the overall plot, which is just about the two sides going nuts anyway -- it's the four lead performances that lift this up and over.
The brothers of Delta Psi might be projections of the Rogen character's stress and anxiety, like the killer children in Cronenberg's 'The Brood,' a difference being that the frat bros wield bongs and dildos instead of lethal meat mallets.
Audience Reviews for Neighbors
Super Reviewer
While Neighbors is fairly entertaining, it goes so far over the top at times that I was disgusted more so than laughing. Seth Rogen is his typical self here, but Zac Efron is surprisingly well-matched in this with him. I found Efron the funniest. Rose Byrne looks nice, but her and Rogen don't have much chemistry and the relationship isn't really believable. Dave Franco continues to do well in smaller roles. The rest of the cast doesn't do much. I really was going to give this a rather positive review, but the last 10 minutes completely undermine everything that came before it. Therefore, I'm lukewarm on my feelings for this. Those that like the hard R comedies will love this. I'm not usually too keen on them, but occasionally I find one I like (Superbad for example).
MoreSuper Reviewer
The whole nightmare neighbours thing has been done to death, anyone remember the Aykroyd and Belushi movie 'Neighbours' from 1981? There are other examples that vary on the premise but the idea is old hat, this movie uses the old frat house theme against the homely couple which in itself is not entirely original. None the less its an opportunity to see Rogen act like a beer swilling unkempt overweight slob and...oh wait, that's not entirely original either.
So the young-ish couple with a baby living in some huge huge detached house in suburbia are horrified when the other huge huge detached house next door gets turned into a frat house. This kind of thing doesn't really happen in the UK, we don't have frat houses and the concept does sound quite ludicrous frankly although I'm sure this situation has been exaggerated. Most folk in the UK don't live in detached mansions either by the way. At first the young couple get on with the party mad...err frat guys/people, but sure enough tensions mount and eventually the situation boils over into a feud.
I kinda found this film to be along the same lines as the comedy 'Identity Thief'. Now when I say comedy I use that term loosely as both movies revolve around situations that aren't really funny, this is how I see them as similar. In reality if this happened to you (either movies plot) it would be horrible, a real nightmare, thusly watching this film kinda made me feel uncomfortable, I actually felt tense and nervous because the whole scenario is just nasty.
Sure there are amusing moments...kinda, at first everything is sorta OK but you know it won't last of course. It starts with simple noise pollution as the teens party all night long, little jibes here and there, nothing too bad. Then as things start to heat up Rogen's character attacks the frat house causing bad water damage which the lads somehow manage to fix by selling...dildos?! they make about 10K I think it was...wut?! From there on various things happen which just aren't particularly funny, nothing really seriously malicious like horrific serve vandalism but just dangerous pranks like somehow setting up Rogen's car airbags to go off on his work seat. How on earth did they manage to get into his work place and do that? let alone find out where he works. The same could be said for the airbag pranks inside Rogen's house...how? plus would they really make a fully grown male as heavy as Rogen fly in the air like that? it all seems illogical and it looked stupid.
I guess the whole thing just feels completely predictable and like something we've seen before many times over the decades, oh wait we have. All the usual drinking pot smoking visual gags, the nerdy older couple trying to be cool and mix in with the younger kids by dressing idiotically and talking like some street wise surfer rap hoodies (am I showing myself up to be out of touch with that comment?). The party montages are the usual epileptic fit inducing variety with hot scantily cad chicks, neon lights, dance floor grinding, insane activities and close ups of Rogen's bare disgusting hairy gut.
What's really kinda weird is the young frat guys keep threatening to do things to get back at Rogen and co yet they never really do much accept for the airbag jokes and just being plainly annoying. The film keeps building up the plot as though something epic is gonna happen but nothing really does. Then in the end after the frat house is shut down and you'd think the frat boys (mainly Efron's character) would be really pissed and out for revenge, he just makes up with Rogen as if nothing ever happened! I was like...that's it?!" after all that you just shake and be friends! what was the point of all this again?
I like Rogen I really do, he can be a funny guy, a good average Joe type fella in solid everyday bloke type movies, he's relatable. This just feels like a vain ego trip (seeing as he produced it) which just doesn't work and feels totally forced. Trying too hard and coming across as overbearing with the attempted laughs, get a new schtick Rogen.
Super Reviewer
A young married couple has to contend with the arrival of a hard partying fraternity next door. This yuck-yuck-yuck comedy purports to aim at the young adult audience but actually aims no further than the high school sophomore crowd (those of the "who-first-smelt-it-dealt-it" brand of eclectic humor).
It was like riding in the backseat of a car driven by a obvious drunk ... "What am I doin' here? When can I get out? Will I make it out?"
And I haven't mentioned the "milking my lactating wife" scene ...
Super Reviewer
Neighbors Quotes
- Pete:
- It's a blessing and a curse man.
- Teddy Sanders:
- It's more accessible
- Teddy Sanders:
- You could be the president of the United Nations.
- Pete:
- The UN doesn't have a president...
- Teddy Sanders:
- See, that's what I mean, you know shit like that.
- Mac Radner:
- Never funny
- Mac Radner:
- I thought it was stupid. Very few funny parts. Young teens will love it
- Teddy Sanders:
- Welcome To The Darkness Bitches
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