Neighbors Review

I went into this movie with high hopes, and boy was I not disappointed. Neighbors was even better than I could have imagined. It had an impressive cast that I will talk about in a minute. It had a pretty damn funny story, and kept me laughing until the very end. The people who made this movie took a concept (feuding neighbors) that has been used over and over again in sitcoms, and turned it into something that would make your grandma blush. 

I have been a big fan of Seth Rogen since I saw him in Superbad, and even liked his try at being a superhero in The Green Hornet. I have never considered myself a fan of Zac Efron. When I looked at him, I just saw some douchebag kid from those really shitty High School Musical movies. I did see him in 17 Again, but I only watched that movie because Thomas Lennon was in it, and I will watch almost anything he is in. I have to say this movie completely changed my mind about Zac Efron. If he sticks to adult comedy movies, I think he can have a long future. The rest of the cast really worked quite well.

It was nice to see Dave Franco in another great movie, (who played the Vice President of the fraternity in Neighbors). I liked him in both this and 21 Jump Street. I wonder if he got the part because he is funny or because his older brother is good friends with Rogen. Either way, I liked him as the Frat guy who partied hard, but also knew all good parties come to an end someday. I don't think he could ever hold a movie together by himself, but I definitely think he can go far as a supporting character. Another great supporting character in this movie was Christopher Mintz-Plasse's character Scoonie. Christopher Mintz-Plasse has become one of my favorite young actors. He was great in Superbad as McLovin', and has been impressing me since. By far my favorite role he has played was The MotherFucker in Kick-Ass 2. I am a huge comic book fan, and I really love Kick-Ass so to see him bring that particular role to life was a real treat. 

As far as female roles in this movie go, I really liked Rose Byrne as Rogen's wife and the "momma bear" willing to do anything to keep her home safe for her baby. I didn't realize it at the time I was watching the movie, but she was Jackie Q in Get Him to the Greek. I did not like her character in that movie, but she more than made up for it in this one. The other female role that I really liked was Carla Gallo. I know her from many different things, but the two that stick out to me most are her roles as Daisy Wick in the TV show Bones, and the period blood girl in Superbad. She had one of my favorite scenes in Superbad. I about pissed my pants laughing at that scene. I never really liked her character in Bones. I found her very annoying. In this movie, she played a party girl who was just a bit too old to be partying, but she would never realize this. She also has one of my favorite lines in the movie when she is talking to her ex-husband and tells him they should have a baby to solve all their problems. 

Like I said before, the plot of Neighbors at its core was just a rehash of many plots about feuding neighbors. Only, this movie put a spin on it by making the neighbors a Frat house. The best part about this particular take on an old plot is that it takes a look at two different transition periods in people's lives. On the one hand, you have a group of college seniors who party all the time, but will soon be out of college, and into the real world where you can't party all the time. On the other hand, you have a couple who are new parents, and haven't really adjusted to their new roles in life. You can tell that both Seth Rogen's and Rose Byrne's characters just want to have a little fun in their lives instead of doing the same thing every night. This is evident from the first time they go to a frat party and get super drunk while their daughter is at home sleeping. I don't want to get into too many particulars about the plot so I'm just going to tell you one small thing that should be enough to make you go see this movie. There is a point during Neighbors when Zac Efron's penis goes into Seth Rogen's mouth. This is in my opinion one of the best scenes in any movie ever. I'm just kidding about that, but I'm not joking about the penis thing. That actually happens. 

Like most movies, this one was not perfect. The biggest flaw I saw was that throughout most of the movie, I found myself asking where the baby was. Rogen and Byrne's may have loved their daughter but they sure did leave her alone a lot. As young as the baby was, I would never leave her alone as long as they did. My other big complaint about this movie was that during one of the scenes, Rose Byrne's character kisses two other characters that aren't her husband. One of them makes sense and was supposed to be sexy. Rogen sees this particular kiss and you can tell by his face that he is turned on. I don't think he saw the other kiss because if he had I think there  would have been a big fight between him and his wife. My problem here is I think they missed a big opportunity to cause tension between the husband and wife. Other things that didn't make quite as much sense eventually caused tension, but this felt like a missed opportunity. 

All in all, I think that Neighbors was a great way to start off my summer movie viewing, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who needs a good laugh. I give it 8.5 out of 10.