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| Silliness is promised on this simple poster for Nicholas Stoller's Neighbors |
With a newborn baby, our protagonist couple have entered a new phase in their lives and relationship, which is inconveniently clashing with their being neighbors to a house where a college fraternity now moves in...
Neighbors is written by Andrew Jay Cohen and Brendan O'Brien (The House (2017), both) and directed by great British-American filmmaker Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)).
Not the experience of becoming parents, nor that of turning 25, 30 or 35, (it is unclear how old they are meant to be exactly), seems to have matured our protagonists to any meaningful extent. - Their dialog has a 'fucking' demonstratively placed in just about every sentence they utter, seemingly because that would make their lines funny, or? (The rationale is dubious at best.)
In any case they just aren't funny, and neither is the frat house next door. Neighbors goes on as a dick-obsessed, very low-flying, poor comedy, which even in its big party scenes didn't make me remember why parties can be fun.
It is a shame that the talented Zac Efron (At Any Price (2012)) finds himself in this cowpat, while it seems more natural that the other stars should sometimes appear in this type of trash. A 'milking scene' with Seth Rogen (Pam and Tommy (2022, miniseries)) and Rose Byrne (Annie (2014)) is the lightest moment in the film and somewhat amusing. Otherwise this amoral drinking and drugs-thrilled burp of a film is long and unfunny.
Related posts:
Nicholas Stoller: The Muppets (2011) or, Man or Muppet? (co-writer)
Get Him to the Greek (2010) - Brand and Hill light up Stoller's funny music biz satire (writer-director)
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Gulliver's Travels (2010) or, Gulliver's Travesty (co-writer)
2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) - Stoller and Segel triumph with hilarious, multifaceted romcom
Fun with Dick and Jane (2005) - Powerhouses Carrey and Leoni buoy Parisot's uneven farce (co-writer)
Watch a short trailer for the film here
Cost: 18 mil. $
Box office: 270.6 mil. $
= Mega-hit (returned 15.03 times its cost)
[Neighbors premiered 8 March (South by Southwest Film Festival, Austin, Texas) and runs 97 minutes. Shooting took place in 38 days from March - May 2013 in California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #1 to a 49 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed in the top 5 for another 2 weekends (#2-#4), grossing 150.1 mil. $ (55.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 26.9 mil. $ (9.9 %) and Germany with 18 mil. $ (6.7 %). Stoller also directed sequel Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016) with also the stars returning. This was Stoller's return, with an episode of The Grinder (2016, TV-series) in between. Efron returned first with a voice performance in Robot Chicken DC Comics Special II: Villains in Paradise (2014, TV movie) and theatrically in We Are Your Friends (2015); Rogen in 22 Jump Street (2014). Neighbors is certified fresh at 73 % with a 6.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Neighbors?
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