Growing Old Sucks

Neighbors

When you were in our early 20s, how many of you were scared to grow old? I know I was; the thought of getting married and having children was terrifying. Then time and age creep up on us and before you know it you are old and trying like hell to recapture your youth. This summer Universal Pictures tries to poke fun at this ‘problem’ with the comedy Neighbors.

New parents, Mac (Seth Rogan) and Kelly Radner (Rose Byrne) are not going to let having a baby slow down their social life. However, getting the baby ready to party is more exhausting than actually partying. So when a fraternity moves in next door, the Radners try and seize the opportunity to prove they are still cool. Though the Radners soon find that their responsibilities outweigh their quest for coolness and one phone call to the local police unravels the new formed friendship with their frat neighbors. Now it is neighbor versus neighbor in a battle of wits to see who will blink first and move away.

Neighbors looks awesome on paper. Seth Rogan has become one of this country’s best comedic actors. Zac Efron is still expanding from the Disney Channel and doing a great job of it. Unfortunately, the execution of this film came across as ridiculous. Rogan and Efron do a decent job in their respective roles, but not enough to right this ship. I guess one aspect of the film that got to me is how fast everyone talks in this film. Not sure if this was supposed to be funny, but I just kept thinking “nobody talks this fast!” The other thing that bothered me (maybe I’m the only one) was the vulgarity. Using sex and drugs to get laughs is sad to me. I’m not sure when comedies became so in your face with vulgarity. Is this where our society has gone? We have to only use dick and fart jokes do get a laugh anymore? What happened to the days of subtlety and/or innuendos? I will say that not the entire movie was over the top vulgar and some of physical comedy was funny but to me, the best jokes were featured in the trailer.

Director Nicholas Stoller is a good comedic writer/director which is evident in his earlier hits like Forgetting Sarah Marshall and The Muppets. Because of those success’ I was surprised by the folly this film turned out to be. I wonder if his heart was just not into this film. I think that Stoller should have put more character into the story and he may have had a good movie to give the public.

For a good comedic actor and an actor doing a great job distancing himself from a certain image, Neighbors just isn’t their best effort. Also knowing that this director can produce great comedy (even with the vulgarity) makes this film even more of a disappointment.

The Verdict: Wait for Cable