Initial Review(ish): 'Neighbors' (Film, 2014)

UK Title: 'Bad Neighbours'

Director: Nicholas Stoller
Screenwriters: Andrew J. Cohen, Brendan O'Brien

Having not yet really seen any of the apparent auteur Stoller's previous work ('The Five Year Engagement', 'Get Him To The Greek', and 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall'), I could not really take any proper artistic preconceptions in (and had not watched a trailer, besides glimpsing a TV commercial).

However, after an amusing opening scene, there is eventual laughter to be had. It's not filmed in a particularly disciplined style (possibly almost cine-verite-ish in places but that's not to say it's like 'Project X' in that regard) and certain sequences even recall Gaspar Noe (c.f. 'Irreversible' and 'Enter The Void').

I should not give away what did make me laugh (and I would even have to sit down and write from memory what some of those moments were). I would say that if you were thinking of watching it, laughter can be guaranteedbut I'm not sure I would go out of my way to recommend it in the same way I might for, say, 'Muppets Most Wanted' or 'The Lego Movie'. But for this kind of comedy, it's perhaps above 'The Heat' (which I did find quite funny in places) if one was to go purely by the number of laughs but I may prefer 'This Is The End'. It's certainly funnier than '21 And Over'.

Zac Efron is an interesting actor to watch and I'm not quite settled on what I make of him. But if you want to see a film in which he tries to shed his 'High School Musical' image, I'd suggest 'The Paperboy' (in which he gets stung by a jellyfish and Nicole Kidman wees on him).