If you are looking for a movie to fulfill your male anatomy joke quota for the year, look no further than “Neighbors,” Seth Rogen’s latest foray into hard-R comedy. Rogen (“Knocked Up”) plays Mac Radner, the schlubby hubby to Rose Byrne’s Kelly (“Bridesmaids”); both share an affinity for profanity and spontaneous sex all over their new house in an effort to prove how young they are. Former party animals themselves, they are finding it hard to adjust to suburban life, staying at home with their baby daughter on a Friday night instead of going out with their single friends.
Temptation and frustration arrive in the form of a rowdy frat moving in next door, headed by Teddy (Zac Efron, “The Lucky One”) and Pete (Dave Franco, “21 Jump Street”). Eager to make nice with the Delta Psi Beta brothers, Mac and Kelly offer the frat some joints as a welcome gift to the brothers before blurting out that they should keep it down.
Teddy and Pete get on the couple’s good side by inviting them to a crazy rager next door, and there is a funny scene where Teddy and Mac debate who is the best Batman, adopting the gruff growl of Christian Bale. The next morning, Teddy asks the Radners to call them instead of the police if things ever get too crazy. When things get out of hand again (the next night, in fact), Mac and Kelly end up calling the police, stopping the budding bromance in its tracks.
A ridiculous prank war ensues, starting with a few artfully placed air bags and inappropriately sculpted shrubbery before finally climaxing in a fight where the weapon of choice is, of course, dildos. Mac and Kelly prove they can get just as down and dirty as the frat; even though they are adults, they are not above acting immature.
In terms of acting, Rogen keeps things inside his wheelhouse as a slacker not quite ready to face the world (though that is not to say that he does not do it well), so it is no wonder that his co-stars get their chance to shine. Franco delivers laughs (his Robert DeNiro impression being a personal favorite) and Byrne makes viewers gasp as she swears like a sailor in her native Australian accent, showing a previously unseen ferocity.
However, one of the best aspects of the film is Efron, who has struggled in more serious films like “The Lucky One.” It is fun to watch him let loose as the wild-eyed prankster president of Delta Psi, flaunting his Ken doll physique to good effect. Teddy is like an unhinged version of the “High School Musical” character with which he rose to fame; instead of singing cheesy songs and playing basketball, he is selling dildos and smoking weed. Also, Troy Bolton never said anything as badass as “Welcome to the darkness, b—–s.” Underneath Teddy’s alpha male façade, however, is someone who is deeply insecure. Unlike Pete, he has no prospects after college, so pulling off the biggest party of the year is the only way he is ever going to be a success.
The film sometimes lets the situations get out of hand, much like its college student antagonists. Perhaps director Nicholas Stoller (“Forgetting Sarah Marshall”) and his writing staff wanted to balance out all the penis jokes with a boob joke, but was it really necessary to have it be about the struggles of breastfeeding? It is also a good thing Mac and Kelly’s daughter is not in much of the film, or her first word might have ended up being something extremely inappropriate (something Stoller and Rogen poke fun at in the film).
Despite its gross-out gags and frequent profanity, “Neighbors” is, above all, a coming-of-age story. For Mac and Kelly, it is accepting that things are never going to be the same, but that that does not necessarily have to be a bad thing. For Teddy and Pete, it is the realization that life goes on after college; it is important to take a breather in between parties to evaluate your life. The Teddys of today just might be the Macs of tomorrow.
