Review of Neighbors (2014) by Axgrinder — 27 Oct 2014

I recommend this movie if you:

A) Enjoy seeing Seth Rogen naked.

B) Think the ‘F bomb’ is an excellent substitute for dialogue.

C) Like listening to Seth Rogen talk incessantly for 97 minutes without ever taking a breath.

D) Are in theI recommend this movie if you:

A) Enjoy seeing Seth Rogen naked.

B) Think the ‘F bomb’ is an excellent substitute for dialogue.

C) Like listening to Seth Rogen talk incessantly for 97 minutes without ever taking a breath.

D) Are in the 8th grade and can talk your parents into letting you see an “R Rated” movie.

Seth Rogen can be a funny guy, and there were three or four times when this movie made me laugh out loud, but that isn’t enough to make this movie worth watching, even as a rental. If you wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the genesis of the idea for this movie came amid a bunch of empty beer bottles in a hazy smoke filled room, then by the same token, you shouldn’t be surprised to hear me tell you that the script is woefully under developed and that Rogen doesn’t seem to have any set dialogue. As the movie progresses his lines morph into long rambling utterances and I wondered to myself if he was ever going shut up, even for just a second. You get the feeling that he (or possibly the writers) thought it was just too much trouble to flesh out the script and decided to improv the dialogue. (Maybe he got the idea from watching a bunch of those Adam Sandler movies that get cranked out on a regular basis like so much sausage?) Zac Efron’s character (Teddy) is equally underdeveloped and confused. Teddy is president of the fraternity that moves in next door. Teddy’s main goal in life is to throw an epic party that will be remembered and revered as part of the mythic lore of fraternities everywhere. The problem is that Teddy is a kind-of-dumb, mildly vindictive, pretty boy who - unlike a Greg Marmalard or Doug Neidermeyer of Animal House - you can neither root for nor against because, in the end, the character he plays is neither evil nor good, just pathetic.