I really didn’t expect Bad Neighbours to be any good when I
caught it on Friday night.
Starring Seth Rogen and Zac Efron as a married father and
frat boy respectively, I had the preconception the movie would be full of
unfunny jokes, a ridiculous amount of nudity and an endless supply of drugs.
They succeeded in ticking two of those boxes, with Bad
Neighbours turning out to be one of the funniest movies I’ve watched.
This film is off the chain.
The perfect setup sees Rogen and Australian actress Rose
Byrne as married couple Mac and Kelly Radner, who are raising their infant
daughter in a quiet neighbourhood. Their next door neighbour suddenly moves out
one day, and after a small period of anticipation, discover the new occupants
are one of their worst nightmares.
Teddy Saunders (Efron), Pete (Dave Franco), Scoonie
(Christopher Mintz-Plasse, or McLovin from Superbad as he’s more widely
recognised) are just three of the college kids who are part of Delta Psi, a
fraternity house known for their amazingly wild parties.
The rest of the film is focuses on the Radners attempting to
continue their lives as per normal, but a lack of peace causes them to do all
they can to get their new neighbours evicted.
I found myself laughing for most of the movie – and not just
the “ha ha it’s Seth Rogen doing drugs and being crazy” laugh, I mean I was
bursting at the seams. The lengths the warring neighbours go to to drive the
other out aren’t original (apart from the Delta Psi crew “relocating” the
Radner’s car airbags – that was amazing), the way they are presented is simply
brilliant.
Lisa Kudrow has a small but brilliant role as Carol, with
Ike Barinholtz and Ali Cobrin hilarious as divorced couple Jimmy and Whitney
who the Radner’s turn to for help.
For me the winning performances (apart from the gags) are from
the Delta Psi crew. I’ve avoided many Efron films because he was “that guy from
High School Musical”, but this has made me want to check out his other recent
roles. Franco continues to be great in everything he does, Mintz-Plasse is all
class while Jerrod Carmichael (Garf) and Craig Roberts (Assjuice) deliver some side-splitting
scenes.
Lastly the soundtrack is freakin sweet. There’s quite a bit
of dubstep and doof-doof that sets the parties alive and feeling the cinemas
subwoofers struggle made me feel like I was there.
Watch it in a cinema as I’m not convinced it will be as
awesome on the small screen.
Note: Released as "Bad Neighbours" in the UK and Australia and "Neighbours" everywhere else.
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