Review: "Neighbors" tries to update feel of 'Animal House' and almost makes it work

"Neighbors" R
Nicholas Stoller (Get Him to the Greek) directs this comedy. Seth Rogan, Rose Byrne and Zack Efron tackle the frat boy comedy in this mix match of Animal House meets Christmas Vacation, two classic movies that the Efron crowd have probably never seen or heard of. For the uninitiated, there was a party hard dude named John Belushi (you might have heard of his younger brother, Jim), who was one of the Saturday Night Live original Not ready for Prime Time Players in the late 1970s. He was playing a college student who was de facto clown of a frat house at a Canadian college that was into all sorts of trouble. Parents hated the film and said it made children think bad things were good. Same old thing here. Or was it? Then Chevy Chase, another SNL alumni from the Prime Time players, was part of the Vacation franchise, the best of which is his Christmas one, where his dopey family is stuck at home for the Holidays and all manner of trouble happens.

Now just imagine Belushi's rebel, gross out gag spewing, naughty man child growing up a little, and having a family. Seth Rogan is essentially his character, or more like his caricature, his inspired everyman.

When the naughty family discovers that their new neighbors are a frat house led by Efron, they immediately want to join them, but the culture clash is the joke. They can't relate. Their jokes are from the 1980s, (granted Animal House was in the 70s, but this is because Rogan is playing someone like like Belushi, not Belushi literally).

The frat soon tires of the nagging couple, who have a baby and need their rest, and seek frat pranks as a form of revenge, but then the couple decide to get them back, as they did in college apparently with another group some time in the late 1980s. (Guess)?

Anyway, this leads to funny moments, so there is much comedic screwball joking, some crude jokes, a truly demented milking scene, and a prank involving making fake penises to amuse the college. Also there are a lot of raunchy jokes and some pranks go wrong. All of this leads to a half way decent comedy movie that doesn't try too hard to be over the top, but when it is it nearly reaches a startled laugh, even a few blasts of 'oh did they just do that, wow', which for this generation is their form of humor.

It is worth owning on the Bluray later, which is sure to have an unrated version.Some of the jokes they just couldn't get away with. If you don't like raunchy humor with people pranking and 'punking' each other, don't see it. But don't complain about it that it causes kids to act crazy. It doesn't any more than sugar.

Review by Adam Browne