Neighbors

I like comedies, and was looking forward to an experience in the same alley as the "Hangover"-movies. But "Bad Neighbours" was probably an all time low for me. This film probably sets a new record in using the words sh*t, fu*k and d*ck. Together with other kinds of swearing. Normally swearing doesn't bother me at all, but this time it just gets boring. The whole movie is a repeat of itself. Parties and "can you keep it down, please?" If that sounds fun, go ahead and watch it! What is the punchline? Is there really a punchline? I couldn't fine any. Zach Efron is, as always, quite handsome and a quite talented actor. Unfortunately that doesn't help much. The storyline is too thin. A total waste of money for me.

As I write this review, there are around 200 reviews posted. As far as I can tell, fewer than 10 of them rate this film at 7 stars or above, yet its average rating is slightly more than 7 stars. In fact, while the vast majority of reviews on the first five pages give it only 1 star, the ratings summary says that only 1.2% of those rating it gave it just 1 star.

This is a long way of saying that it's now inescapable fact that trolls, spoofers, and studio shills dominate the site. A system is only useful until enough people figure out how to game it, and this is (sadly) now the case for this site.

On to the review: Neighbors had a big challenge to overcome with me, as I just don't normally find Seth R. and his "Seth Pack" to be very funny. Unfortunately, this film fails on every level to provide either humor or entertainment. It's a rare film that can depict all characters as totally unsympathetic and get away with it. After all, the viewer needs to be able to identify with SOMEONE in a story or film, even if it's the third-party narrator. This movie has absolutely no sympathetic characters in it at all. It's the essence of comedic nihilism. I didn't like any of the characters, none of them said anything that was vaguely funny, and I didn't identify with any point of view expressed in the film. To make matters worse, the director relied solely on profanity and T&A for shock value.

Totally worthless movie. Don't waste your time.

Holy mother of god this film is awful. I went with my eyes fully open, expecting a tasteless, crass assault on the senses, and I was in the mood for exactly that. Sometimes those kinds of movies are just what you want even if you come out after feeling like you should scrub yourself vigorously with bleach-soaked sandpaper and say a million hail mary's.

And this film delivers... half the package. It is crass and unnecessarily rude, chucking in a few c-words for shock value, a few boobs to keep the spotty teenagers (and spotty adults) happy, a bit of violence etc etc. But WHERE WERE THE FRIGGING LAUGHS? I chuckled about 3 times, and one of them was because I heard my mate laugh and assumed I had missed a joke (he was in fact, quite understandably, attempting to suffocate himself by ramming his head into his Pick N Mix).

There were a couple of promising moments in the opening scenes which I can't even remember now. If I had known that they were to be the only laughs in the entire film I would have made more of an effort to record them. As it was I blithely assumed that there would be more to come. In retrospect I blush at my naivety.

Millions of my brain cells short-circuited themselves just so that this utter toilet-juice could not be transmitted into my head. If you suffer from seizures/are prone to heart problems/or are at risk from having a stroke... do not worry, you are more likely to die from boredom/suicide as you watch this brain hemorrhage of a film.

Everything about it is annoying - the actors are annoying, the script is annoying, the product placement is annoying, the music, the plot (hahaha), the pacing, the *stupid* *unfunny* 'hilarious' to-and-fro's between Seth Rogen and Rosie Byrne, the sickly Hollywood moralising ... all *annoying*, and worse still sometimes just plain dull. How do you make a film of this genre *dull*, I mean at very least you expect it will tick along at a reasonable pace; even if it is depressingly badly done surely the loud noises and flashing lights will stimulate some part of your brain, yes? You would think so because you are a rational human being and someone has placed a product in front of your eyes that cost millions of dollars to produce; something that took months of writing, planning, acting (cough), editing, all done by *professional* film makers working for a major Hollywood film production company. But no. I have sat through more exciting and rewarding bowel-movements (by a huge margin, but then perhaps that's setting the bar a little high). You probably get the idea: I didn't like it.

I know I mentioned the 'comedy' 'back and forths' between Rogen and Byrne, but I feel it is necessary to clearly state that you will feel physically sick during these. They have attempted to make these exchanges appear spontaneous, as if the comic tension between the two of them was crackling and sparkling with such fury that the director just said 'hey you guys, you don't need a script, you don't need me, hell you just stand there and vomit me comedy gold'. Well they vomited... right over your clothes and in your hair and in your eyes. Like a children's birthday party where Uncle Bertie gave them all the lemonade and cake they could eat *before* he let them get on the bouncy castle.

I feel much better, thank you IMDb for allowing me to undergo this therapeutic experience.

Neighbors plays as a typical Seth Rogen meets Zac Efron comedy. Its demographic double play aside, Neighbors is very good at blending its two kinds of comedy, frathouse and new-parent angst together into a tight and consistently funny package. The film draws connections between the two house, new parents Mac and Kelly Radner (Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne) secretly crave their old wild lives, while the boys at Delta Psi look at their brotherhood as a sort of stable home environment.

Neighbors at first seems to string along many unconnected pieces then eventually we see he first connection come along and start to process as the film goes along. It is a silly comedy and many of the negative reviews seem to have complaints about this. It isn't trying to be a masterpiece or anything special but what t does, it works and there are a specific audience for these kinds of comedy.

I will never understand why people slate films like this, comedies are never going to have Oscar winning performances or scripts, so to the people who come and review films like these I think why go in the first place, you watch different types of films for different reasons, comedies to laugh, romantic films for dates etc etc.....

The main reservation I have with comedy films recently is that most seem to have all the best bits in the trailer and the rest of the film is kinda flat, this was not one of those at all. I laughed from start to finish and so did my girlfriend.

I'm not the biggest seth rogan fan, I liked a few of his films and hated others but he was awesome in this, a real down to earth guy you can relate to, his wife played by Rose Byrne was also very funny, women tend to have comedic roles toned down in films but she was as good if not better than rogan. Their acting was good, they clicked well and seemed like a couple most could relate to.

Then comes the frat boys, led by zac effron Christopher mintz plasse and Dave Franco who were all superb at what they did, considering they were all 6-10 years older than their roles they played them perfectly. Good chemistry between the group. Also had some great cameos including Lisa kudrow as the dean. The casting and acting were great. The actress who stole the show though was Stella played by twin babies, she is the cutest baby I have ever seen and was really funny. Zac effron although begrudgingly is one fit dude, he seems like a decent comedy actor as well, I loved 17 again so maybe this could be a more common role.

Being English I don't fully understand fraternities and the American traditions and I'm unsure that a university would purchase real estate in a suburban neighbourhood knowing it to be a loud party filled mad house. But either way I don't care about how something may or may not happen it was a good plot and worked well throughout. Zac and seth were great together! The overall chemistry was great and the film looked so much fun to make.

I loved this movie there are easily 15-20 hilarious moments which had some cinema goers clapping (that never happened when I saw the snoozefest gravity which is a supposed masterpiece) everything is there to make a good comedy film, chemistry, relate-able characters, a plot that if it happened to you you probably would act similar to how they played it! Start off as cool neighbours before entering all out war.

The flat bits in the film where there's more dialogue were fine, it never felt slow or boring, the hilarity was well worth the wait. The film is easily the best comedy in years. I won't say much more than if you've been disappointed with recent comedies you won't be by this, go to the cinema or wait for DVD cut ages 10-30 will love this! Maybe even the older folks to, ignore the low reviews and scores , people have lost their sense of humour!

9/10 must see