Neighbors Review

Producers: Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen, and James Weaver

The Good

The comedic pacing was superb. Each minute of the movie was filled with a hilarious scene.

The final fight between Teddy and Mac was pure comedy. They both showed anger with a bit of crazy and unorthodox fighting skills. When Mac jumped on the trampoline to do a wrestling move on Teddy and instead knocking into the ceiling fan, you could hear the entire audience bust out laughing.

Some of the pranks for this movie were:

Airbags- The placement of the airbags was awesome. They hid them in random places for Mac to find. They placed two at Mac’s work place. Mac’s friend Jimmy really didn’t see it coming when it took him into the air.

Fake off probation letter/ Flyers- After ending in the newspaper, the college dean, put Delta Psi on probation. They received their second strike and had to cancel their last party. The Radner family wanted the Fraternity to receive their last strike and ultimately the final blow to the guys so they will have to leave. They sent a fake letter to the frat about being off of probation to get them to throw another party.

Frat brother double cross- Kelly leads this prank and she was tactful. She analyzed the party and could tell certain key details from her surroundings. This was a very successful prank all because she committed to the execution. She even made out with both Teddy’s girlfriend and Pete in order to get them to have sex. This really hurt Teddy and made him lose some faith in his frat brother.

Zac Efron really showed a great improvement on his acting skills. He played a character that was mixed with a lot of emotion. They showed Teddy at his high points and even some low points. You really felt for his character and the passion that drives him to keep tradition alive.

Rose Byrne played a great partner to Seth Rogen. Her character, Kelly, wasn’t just the passive wife who didn’t want Mac to go out and do crazy things. Kelly joined in all of the crazy pranks in this film, even lead a few of them.

The supporting cast of Scoonie (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), Carol Gladstone (Lisa Kudrow), Officer Watkins (Hannibal Buress), Jimmy Faldt (Ike Barinholtz), and Paula (Carla Gallo) brought out the best in the main characters. They all played a pivotal role in the pranks and brought their own comedic styles to increase the level of funny scenes in this movie.

The Bad

Delta Psi selling sex toys to cover the water damage to their house was a little ridiculous. You would have to sell a ton of those products in order to have enough to fix basement water damage, get an outdoor hot tub and outdoor speakers. This just made you raise your eyebrow on how feasible it would be to do this task.

No amount of good deeds would make any neighbor overlook the constant partying of Delta Psi. They would go crazy after the third straight night. It’s hard to believe each neighbor would be fine with the fraternity moving into the neighborhood.

The parents, Mac and Kelly, leaving Stella at home by herself to go next door to party were careless. They definitely showed how irresponsible they were with that move.

Originally published on the Bring On The Reviews Blogspot blog on May 15, 2014.

Neighbors (2014) Cast and Details

Neighbors (2014) is directed by Nicholas Stoller and stars Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne, Zac Efron and Dave Franco. It runs 97 minutes and is rated R. You can look up the full cast and crew on IMDb. You might also like my The Italian Job review.