In all honesty, I was a little afraid of what this movie
meant for Seth Rogen’s career. He’s
always been a slacker-stoner archetype, mostly because I think that he’s very
much like that in real life, and he’s always been really funny because of
it. So when I heard he stars in a movie
with a plot synopsis that sounds like a premise to a bad sitcom, and the
character who I would normally associate his persona with is being played by
Disney teen starlet Zac Efron, I had some serious reservations about it. And yet, lo and behold, this is exactly the
type of movie it needed to be, and it’s a great preview of the career paths for
both Rogen and Efron. Oh, and let’s not forget, it’s really damn
funny!
The story is that married couple Mac and Kelly (played by
Rogen and Rose Bryne, respectively) have poured all their money into a new
house and are looking forward to raising their infant daughter there. However, when a fraternity moves into the
house next door, the couple becomes worried that the noise will disturb their
tranquil new home. The fraternity’s
president, Teddy, is played by Efron, and he only wants to leave a legacy
behind for future generations of the frat, so it’s his goal to throw the most
over-the-top parties imaginable. And so,
a series of escalating pranks take place so as to try and force each other to
move out.
What sounds like it should be a corny set-up is actually
cleverly executed. As I said before, I
think that Rogen would have fit into the frat-boy persona decently enough a few
years ago, but this film acknowledges something pretty important here: Rogen
isn’t getting any younger. Rogen’s
pot-smoking loser antics aren’t going to hold up forever, so something needs to
change. Neighbors gets meta-textual about the whole issue and makes Rogen’s
character a new family man who is essentially trying to recapture the lost devil-may-care
attitude that he had only five years ago.
It’s a stroke of genius, and yet it never goes so far as to imply that
he’s neglectful of his adult responsibilities, which would make him a tired
mid-life crisis cliché. In fact, his
wife is right there with him the entire time, and the way they make their adult
lives work around trying to screw over the fraternity is the set-piece of at
least a couple well-done scenes.
And of course, the big surprise hit here is seeing Zac Efron
put on the big boy shoes and actually do some damn fine acting. He knows how to deliver a funny line and
actually seems to fit right in to the shoes that Rogen has left for him to
fill. Not only that, but his character
actually has some surprising depth to him, allowing Efron to shine as a
dramatic actor for a few short scenes, and yet never brings the light-hearted
feeling of the production to a halt.
Efron is someone who’s going to be sticking around for a while, and if
he can keep up this good work, I’ll be happy to see him.
I should also make note of Rose Bryne’s great comedic
touches as well; she isn’t as well-known as Rogen or Efron, so I can’t really
analyze her career trajectory, but she’s just as valuable to the film as the
two male leads. And yeah, I suppose I should
close out by mentioning the most important thing in reviewing a comedy: it’s
really damn funny. It’s hard to say more
than that without giving away the humorous surprises, as is per usual in a
comedy, but I will say that it makes full use of the R rating. Even the gross-out humor that would have
fallen flat in any other film is made charming by Rogen’s and Efron’s
charisma. Neighbors is everything I wanted it to be, and it is well worth the
time investment to get a few genuine laughs.
What’s your favorite Seth Rogen film? Let me know in the comments below.
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