I know I’m probably way behind with this review, but I just saw it a couple of days ago. Neighbors is a decent comedy film that has laughs, but not as many as I was hoping for, which was a bit disappointing. There are some really great moments, including some great cameos! Neighbors is funny, but I wouldn’t rank it up there as one of the best or funniest comedies. I’ll explain in my review, so without further delay, let’s jump into the review!
*WARNING MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD*
Neighbors is a 2014 comedy film directed by Nicholas Stoller, written by Andrew J. Cohen and Brendan O’Brien, and stars Seth Rogen, Zac Efron, Rose Byrne, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Dave Franco.
Plot: Mac and Kelly Radner (Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne) are a young couple with a new baby daughter, who because of parenting don’t have time to party and do fun stuff with their two friends Jimmy Blevins and his ex-wife Paula.
Mac and Kelly discover that a local college Fraternity, known as Delta Psi Beta has just moved next door to them, and Delta Psi is known for their outrageous parties. Mac and Kelly worried that they will have to deal with their loud parties, attempt to start out on the right foot, by introducing themselves to the fraternity and Mac even offers the frat leaders Teddy and Pete (Zac Efron and Dave Franco) a blunt. Teddy and Pete seem to be really polite and friendly guys even commenting on how cute Mac and Kelly’s daughter is, and everything seems fine. Mac and Kelly just ask Teddy to keep the noise down whenever they are partying, and Teddy says they will and that if they are too loud to call him first and not the cops.
That night, at the Delta Psi Beta frat house, Teddy and Pete talk to their other fraternity brothers about their goal of making it into the Delta Psi Beta Hall of Fame, like other past members. While Teddy and Pete each tell different stories we see flashbacks to how different Delta Psi Beta members made it into the hall. These flashbacks are hilarious and include cameos from The Workaholics crew: Anders Holm, Adam DeVine, Blake Anderson, and Kyle Newacheck, The Lonely Island: Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer, and Jake Johnson (New Girl, Let’s Be Cops). Teddy and Pete tell their Delta Psi brothers that they are going to throw an end of the year rager to make it into the Delta Psi Hall of Fame.
In an attempt to keep things cool between Mac and Kelly, Teddy invites them to the frat house, where they are throwing a party. Mac seems to be hitting it off with Teddy and they seem to get along joking, drinking, and doing shrooms together. Kelly meets Teddy’s girlfriend Brooke and they seem to get along, despite the difference in age and maturity level.
Sometime later Mac, Kelly and their daughter are woken up in the early morning hours by a loud party, and after Mac tries calling Teddy numerous times, Mac and Teddy agree to call the cops. A police officer shows up in front of Delta Psi’s frat and when Teddy and Pete ask who called the cops, the officer along with Teddy and Pete knocks on Mac and Kelly’s door, and after Mac admits he called the cops, he tries to apologize to Teddy. Teddy is very angry at Mac and this is where the pranks start happening!
After a series of back and forth pranks, which include, putting an airbag in one of Mac’s couch cushion’s sending him flying through the air, and breaking a water pipe to flood Delta Psi Beta’s basement, things start to really escalate.
Mac and Kelly try to smooth things over with Teddy and Pete, and are allowed to hangout at another party at the frat. Mac and Kelly pretend to make peace with Teddy and Pete so that they can try and get Pete and Brooke (Teddy’s girlfriend) to sleep together. Kelly by offering Pete and Brooke numerous shots of alcohol and getting Pete aroused by kissing Brooke, successfully gets Pete and Brooke to make out and eventually have sex. Meanwhile, Mac challenges Teddy to a dance off and after a few attempts, finally gets Teddy to see Pete and Brooke going upstairs and he catches them having sex together.
Teddy gets angry at Pete and they begin to fight each other. Teddy then decides to throw stuff off of the balcony, per Mac’s suggestion. Someone rolls a grill onto the sidewalk and it ends up hitting a Professor from Delta Psi’s college and injuring them. Teddy, Pete and another member of Delta Psi meet with the Dean (Lisa Kudrow) and she puts them on probation and warns them not to throw any parties, otherwise they will get three strikes and the frat will be shut down.
Mac and Kelly along with the help of their friend Jimmy (Ike Barinholtz) decide to try and catch Delta Psi in a hazing scheme, and get one of the Delta Psi pledges known as Assjuice to record it with a camera in his glasses. After Assjuice stands up to Teddy during one of the hazing rituals, Teddy is very kind and understanding to him and this causes Assjuice to reveal Mac and Kelly were trying to get him to get the frat shut down.
Teddy then begins to take things a bit further and begins playing really violent pranks on Mac, Kelly and their friend Jimmy. While Mac and Jimmy are at work, and sit down both are thrown into the ceiling from airbags that were placed in their chairs.
After Mac and Kelly, along with the help of their friend Jimmy try to devise a way to get Delta Psi’s frat shut down, they finally decide to send a fake letter from Delta Psi’s college to Teddy, saying their probation has been lifted, leading Teddy to throw a party to celebrate.
Mac, Kelly, and Jimmy create flyers inviting random strangers, including some homeless people to Delta Psi’s party. The party ends up getting out of control and Jimmy calls the police to make a noise complaint. Teddy looks at the letter and realizes the insignia is wrong and instead of being written in Latin, it’s written in Hebrew (something Jimmy did as a way to brag how he tricked Delta Psi). Teddy realizes Delta Psi’s probation hasn’t been lifted and rallies his fraternity brothers to get people out before the cops show up. The same officer from earlier shows up and after believing the party is ending is about to drive off in his car.
Mac and Kelly see this and desperate to get Teddy and his fraternity shut down, break into his attic and Kelly right before being stopped by Teddy shoots some fireworks into the officer’s car forcing him to crash his car!
The cop gets out and asks for back up, and Mac and Kelly leave the party, as cops begin arresting people at the party. Teddy tells Pete to run and gather the rest of the Delta Psi members too. Teddy is arrested and Mac and Kelly win, forcing The Dean to shut down the frat.
Four months later Mac runs into Teddy who is now working as a shirtless greeter at Abercrombie and Fitch. Teddy doesn’t harbor any hatred towards Mac and Kelly and tells Mac that Pete is a successful architect now. Teddy tells Mac he is taking night classes to get his degree and Mac takes off his shirt, pretending to be a greeter with Teddy ending the film.
Neighbors was a funny movie, but there wasn’t as much comedy as I was hoping for. The film actually kind of focused on how becoming an adult is scary, because after college we all have to grow up and start thinking about what we’re going to do with our lives. I can relate to this notion being in my mid-twenties and just being a year out of college. The real world is a scary place and trying to figure out what you are going to do after college can be a very daunting task.
Neighbors shows how boring and mundane being a parent is and how you don’t have time to do all of the fun activities you could like partying, drinking, going to musical festivals and concerts.
Teddy (Zac Efron) represents the person who has a hard time transitioning from the college party life-style to adulthood, and also doesn’t know what they want to do with their life.
Mac and Kelly represent the married couple with kids who have a difficult time transitioning from being the married couple who had time to party, go to concerts, and stay out late to the married couple with kids, who don’t have time to party, go to concerts, go to musical festivals and stay out late and as a result become very boring.
What I liked:
When Mac (Seth Rogen) first sees Teddy (Zac Efron) and says “he looks like something a gay guy created in a laboratory!” Haha
Ike Barinholtz’s Mark Wahlburg impression.
The Robert Deniro Party and Pete’s (Dave Franco) impression of Robert Deniro from Meet The Parents.
The cameos during the Delta Psi stories.
Pete’s (Dave Franco) spontaneous boner trick, it was hilarious, especially during his fight with Teddy (Zac Efron).
One of the Delta Psi members telling The Dean (Lisa Kudrow) during their meeting that he was high haha.
The film being a commentary on how scary adulthood is.
What I disliked:
There were not as many laughs as I was hoping for.
Mac and Kelly’s daughter almost swallowing a condom, that was kinda gross.
Overall I enjoyed Neighbors, despite it being less of a comedy and more of a commentary on how becoming an adult sucks because it’s scary, daunting and we’re afraid of becoming boring people like Mac and Kelly.
MY FINAL RATING IS A 7/10
Screen Sage 