Review – Bad Neighbours

Mac and Kelly Radnor (Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne) are trying to live the dream of raising a family in the quiet suburbs when a fraternity unexpectedly moves in next door. Predictably, animosity builds between the party-going college seniors, led by Teddy Sanders (Zac Efron) and Pete Regazolli (Dave Franco), and the sleep-deprived couple. But Bad Neighbours (Neighbors in the US) is refreshingly light on its toes, avoiding most of the formulaic pitfalls you’d expect of this sort of comedy and taking boner-humour to a new level.

Efron is cast as the arrogant, overconfident rival, but the film doesn’t make him wholly unsympathetic – some of the best moments in the film come when we’re rooting for him to succeed. Likewise, Kelly Radnor is allowed to be a lot more than just a foil to Rogen’s Mac, and the camera frequently gives her the breathing room to just be funny. This shouldn’t be remarkable, but it’s more than any female character was ever given in an Apatow production, and it helps make this movie so much fun – the camera likes spending time with these characters, and then so do we.

Bad Neighbours is destined to be one of those touchstones comedies that teenagers will rewatch endlessly and adults will hold up as a classic of the genre. It’s not great cinema, but it is great fun, and surprisingly novel in the implementation.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zEUuzj3a2g&w=400]