Neighbors

Nicholas Stoller, 2014

Can I Stream It?

3/5

Mac (Seth Rogen) and Kelly (Rose Byrne) are excited to move into a quaint residential neighborhood with their baby girl. But everything soon changes when a fraternity, led by Teddy Sanders (Zac Effron) moves into the house next to theirs and they realize that they are going to be living next to a party-house.

Somewhere between Animal House, Dennis the Menace and 1981's Neighbors (a forgotten comedy featuring John Belushi and Dan Akroyd) lies 2014's Neighbors, written by Andrew J. Cohen and Brendan O'Brien (Funny People, 40 Year Old Virgin) and directed by Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall). Seth Rogen brings his typical stoner humor to his Mac role but this time throws a baby girl in his arms almost as if Ben Stone (Knocked Up) moved away, ditched Katherine Heigl and picked up the lovely (and let's face it, significantly more tolerable) Rose Byrne. Not a bad swap. Byrne provides a good dynamic with the Mac character, two people who are desperately trying to hold onto some elements of their early twenties without completely submitting to inevitably boring parenthood. When they discover that there is a fraternity moving next door, their first impulse is to somehow relate to them in some way which they soon discover is virtually impossible. A reminder that those days are over, and sometimes you don't realize how distant they are until they are literally right in front of you as if you are staring at a reflection of your former self. What follows is a slapsticky battle of the neighbors that for the most part is funny, although there is surely some fat that could be trimmed. But the highlights: the many simultaneously talking DeNiro's, the airbag deployments, the many insecurities/panicking involving their baby outnumber the not-so-funny moments. Rose Byrne is actually proving to be one of the better comedic actresses working today, almost like a reincarnated version of Cameron Diaz from the Something about Mary days.

With so many garbage comedies being churned out these days the bar has been lowered greatly. Typically you sit through overused premises, bad acting, momentary laughs. Neighbors manages to tap into some unused veins in the comedy genre.

This is the End

Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg, 2013


4/5

James Franco (playing himself) is hosting a housewarming party at his new palatial contemporary home when the party is inconveniently interrupted by the apocalypse. Terrified of the impending doom, they decide they are better off sticking together trying to survive.

Rogen and Goldberg and company pull off an impressive feat in this much-used premise of the apocalyptic doom and gloom epic. The final result is sort of like if Seth Rogen put pot brownies on the craft services table during the filming of The Day After Tomorrow. Powered by a strong cast that includes many of the usual Apatow suspects, the reactionary humor never runs dry. Several cameos (Michael Cera, Rihanna, Emma Watson) show that many were willing to take a pay cut to have some fun with the $32M budget. The $32M budget went impressively far, with special effects that should impress most with a big-budget feel. With the cast playing caricatures of themselves, they show that they are capable of making fun of themselves. Giving Rogen and Goldberg free reign with putting their writing at the screen is a good decision, already proven with Pineapple Express. With a flawless screenplay, soundtrack and editing, the colossal demise of our world has never been so funny. The earth opens up wide to swallow the coke-riddled narcissists of Tinseltown. Jonah Hill has one stand-out scene in the film where he's acting very Jonah Hilly that should have you laughing days later.

And so continues Seth Rogen's interesting career. He has some serious comedy gems under his belt at this point (Knocked Up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Pineapple Express) and of course some duds. His comedy is the most effective when you feel as if you're next in the weed circle. He's clearly his strongest in roles that are well within his comfort zone, and there's no shame in that. And while the amount of weed hasn't diminished, neither has the comedy. You get a sense watching that the boys have all grown up a bit, but haven't lost a step.