Neighbors

In a world where Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum are the comedy tag team champions of the world, it only makes sense that Seth Rogen and Zac Efron work together perfectly in the frat comedy Neighbors. Rogen and Rose Byrne play new parents adjusting to family life when a college fraternity moves into the house next door. Of course this isn’t a nice, quiet, volunteering frat either. Efron and co. are quite raucous. So after a failed attempt to befriend their new neighbors, they go back and forth in prank warfare.

Rogen has become a master at portraying the loveable oaf and in this effort he is a responsible, loveable oaf. He pulls it off quite well. Byrne complements him well as she continues to be a comedy powerhouse in her own right. Now what about Efron? Well, he’s actually quite funny. All three of the leads provide some depth to their laugh happy characters, but let’s not pretend this is some deep dive into the human condition. It’s a frat comedy that meets all the stereotypes of the binge-drinking, fornicating college idiots. But at the risk of sounding overly simple, Neighbors is just plain funny. I tend to think that’s important for a comedy.

Seth Rogen has done well adapting his films to his increasing age. It seems odd to think that the stoner comic is playing a semi-responsible parent, but he does so with great success. The frat also comes across as equal parts annoying and likeable. The fact you can work in a Franco brother (Dave), the actor formerly known as McLovin’ (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) along with Efron, I’d say casting has done their job quite well. And as if I needed to say more, what about that Robert DeNiro themed party? Genius.

Each film earns either zero, a half or a full arrow in five categories. The categories are Acting, Writing/Directing, Emotion, Innovation and Overall Impression. The arrows are added up to equal the full score.