2014 Summer Retrospective: Neighbors

 

This is the End destroyed 2013 as far as I’m concerned.  It was by no means the best movie I saw that year, but it was by far the funniest.  I hadn’t seen a comedy so blaringly disgustingly entertaining since Superbad.

It made sense then that when I heard about 2014’s Neighbors, which held the same writers, directors and star as the aforementioned this is the End, that I was super excited.  I wanted to see how these filmmakers followed up one of the funniest movies I’d ever seen; but what I got was kind of disappointing.  Though, that was really more my fault then anyone’s.

Neighbors certainly isn’t a bad movie; if I hadn’t gone into the film with such specific expectations then I would’ve probably called it a great one, but it suffered from a problem that a bizarre number of comedies have these days:  It just wasn’t that funny.  Sure there were some really funny parts, but I wasn’t on the floor vomiting with laughter like I was during this is the End.

Objectively though, Neighbors is a very solid flick.  In a way it’s the sequel to the bromantic gross out comedies that have permeated the market in the last decade or so.

In Neighbors Seth Rogan isn’t a drunken young man who has to learn about friendship through the power of marijuana, but a married (slightly less young) man who has a paying job and a young child that he has to support.  Him and his wife are both going through somewhat of a late-early life crisis, because they never go out and have fun anymore, they just take care of the baby, a full time job.

The fraternity that moves in next door are less the antagonists of the film (especially since they too have their own arcs, and aren’t really vary villainous,) and more a reminder to our characters of the fun party days that are behind them.  Neighbors is only superficially about a prank war between a young couple just starting out and a gang of drunken partying frat boy, it’s really about excepting the responsibilities of the present, and appreciating how awesome those things can be.  I may reminisce about the days when I was younger and had less responsibility, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be able to enjoy the new adventures of the present, or shirk the responsibility that comes with them.  This is an exceptional message for a big Hollywood release, and one that a lot of younger people now-a-days should probably be taught more often.

Along with the strong message come some very funny performances, especially from Rose Byrne and Zac Efron, as well as some legitimately funny scenes and scenarios.  Neighbors isn’t nearly as funny as this is the End, but I realize now that I shouldn’t have expected it to be.  Neighbors is trying to be more than funny, it’s trying to be intelligent; and on top of that it succeeds.  I strongly recommend it to anyone who doesn’t mind a little gross-out humor.  Because Behind all of the pranks, swearing and pop-culture references is a story that could give children of all ages something to think about.

Thanks for reading!  Check back in the next couple days for some more awesome reviews and info!