Neighbors: Movie Review

I reviewed the new comedy “Neighbors” this past March at the SXSW festival in Austin. Although what we saw was a work-print, some minor changes might have been made to the finished film. However, below you will see my thoughts on the version shown in March. You can check out the rest of my SXSW recap here.

We were shown a work-print of Nicholas Stoller’s “Neighbors” here at SXSW. From what Stoller told us during the introduction, there is still a bit of work that needs to be finished before the film’s April release, but from what I saw, the film felt pretty much complete. I would say that it could use about 10-15 minutes of trimming because despite how funny “Neighbors” is, it does feel like it ran on a bit too long.

Mac (Seth Rogen) and Kelly (Rose Byrne) are a young couple whose lives have shifted into the mundane after the birth of their newborn baby. When a fraternity moves in directly next door, the couple decides to introduce themselves and ask the frat to try to keep the noise to a minimum. Headed by Teddy (Zac Efron) and Pete (Dave Franco), the frat invites the couple in to party with them, where we see Mac and Rose let loose.

It seems like an understanding between the neighbors has been reached until Mac and Kelly call the police to make a noise complaint the following night. This leads to an all out war.

“Neighbors” is absolutely hilarious and most surprisingly it is Efron who is responsible for many of them. He definitely holds his own against Rogen. The biggest problem with the film is that is just feels like it goes on way too long, but hopefully the work-in-progress version we saw will get a nice little trimming before the rest of you get to check it out.

By: Marc Ferman