701. Bad Neighbours (2014)

Starring: Zac Efron, Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne

Director: Nicholas Stoller

Running Time: 97 mins

Bad Neighbours (Neighbors) is an American film about a married couple with a baby who have to find a way to get their life back after a raucous and party-mad fraternity moves in next door, sparking an all-out war between the two sides.

To be honest, I got exactly what I expected from this film. It’s an outrageous, hilarious and fast-paced comedy with madness left, right and centre, but it’s so terribly juvenile and idiotic that at some points I felt like I had to be sick, which was a bit of a downside to the enjoyability.

For starters, however, it’s tough to deny how funny this film really is. Luckily, it’s not just totally moronic toilet humour (although that does play a big part), instead there’s a great mix of slapstick, great dialogue, hilarious characters and a whole lot more that make for a hugely successful laughs to minutes ratio.

It’s got a really good Superbad-esque vibe to it all, so it is a juvenile, farcical teen movie, but it has a properly decent story with genuinely entertaining comedy, and no idiotic derivations into the social lives of the characters, just an hour and a half of no holds barred, totally insane comedy and partying, which is a lot of fun for the majority of the film.

Also, there are some surprisingly strong performances here. Seth Rogen plays his typical Judd Apatow character, Rose Byrne is quite funny, but not particularly impressive, however Dave Franco and, amazingly, Zac Efron in particular were hugely entertaining to watch, with great characters that allowed them to really flourish as these manic fraternity brothers.

However, there is one huge problem with this film, which really made the viewing experience a lot more frustrating, and that was the more disgusting nature of some of the jokes. Yes, it was juvenile and moronic, but I didn’t mind that too much such was the setting of the film, however the fact that some of the scenes are so explicit and grotesque genuinely made me feel ill, and that really ruined my impression of the film as a whole.

Nonetheless, this gets a 7.6, because, looking past the fact that I was on the verge of being sick, this is a hugely entertaining and funny film, but it is something that’s definitely much more suited to its teen audience.