Neighbors ~ A Capsule Movie Review by Allen Kopp 

A couple in their thirties, Mac and Kelly Radner (played by Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne), spend all their money to buy a house in a comfortable neighborhood. Everything is fine with them until the house next door is turned into a fraternity house. (Apparently a college is nearby, although it’s never mentioned.) Mac and Kelly try to be “hip” and “with it,” but they realize right away that having a fraternity next door is not going to be in their best interests.

When they are being kept awake by the late-night, raucous partying, Mac and Kelly decide to confront the rowdies themselves, instead of calling the police, and ask the fraternity boys to “keep it down.” They meet party-boy Teddy (Zac Efron), the muscular “president” of the fraternity who charms them in a way to make them think he cares about them. They enter into an agreement with Teddy whereby they won’t call the police if they are again bothered by the noise; all they have to do is call him and ask him to “keep it down.” Thereafter they are known by the fraternity as “the old people.”

The partying continues unabated. Mac, Kelly and their baby are being kept awake far into the night. Mac tries to call Teddy to ask him to “keep it down,” but Teddy isn’t available after ten or so tries, so Mac calls the police, even though he promised he wouldn’t. Teddy, of course, knows it was Mac who called and not somebody else in the neighborhood. Thereafter a sort of “war” exists between the fraternity and Mac and Kelly, the “old people.” Mac takes an axe to a pipe on the fraternity house, causing the basement to flood; he hopes that will be enough to get the fraternity to move. When the fraternity boys use the flooded basement to their own advantage, Mac resorts to other measures. He and Kelly pay a thousand dollars to a mousey college boy to claim that he was “hazed” by the fraternity. This ploy also backfires.

You won’t need to use your brain at all when you see Neighbors, which has humor deriving from college kids who never attend class or study, sex, pot smoking, drug use, breast milk, dildos, condoms, etc. It’s a likeable, harmless movie if that’s what you’re looking for. It’s also a huge success with the public. It made back its production costs on the first day of its release and is the number one movie right now. Draw your own conclusions.

Copyright © 2014 by Allen Kopp