Bad Neighbours (Review)

Bad_Neighbours_PosterHere is a movie that opens with spontaneous and clumsy sex and ends with spontaneous and messy pizza in bed, an arc any person of ‘advanced youth’ can surely appreciate. And like most who have seen their teens click over to the late thirties, neither of those things are at all bad, it is the soft and pudgy middle bit that is most perplexing and infuriating.

Mac (Seth Rogen) and Kelly (Rose Byrne) Radner move out of the 20s and into the suburbs, with a new home to make their own and a new baby to raise. Mac especially seems to resent the very idea that fatherhood means the death of his youth, but it seems the harsh reality is best illustrated by the equation; ‘mortgage + child = responsibilities and stuff’.

No matter, they surmise, we can be that couple that overcomes, that bucks the odds. We can be the mature couple that retains all of the carefree benefits of youth. I think every married couple with a kid says that at least once…

When the frat moves in to the large rental house next door, Mac and Kelly don’t fret too much. After all they’re just like these kids. ‘We’ll fit in with them, not them with us’. A first night of drinking, partying and indulgence ingratiates the couple to the new kewl kids, most notably Teddy (Zac Efron) and Pete (Dave Franco), but ‘backing up’ after a heavy night is for the young, and after the initial momentary amusement the Radners find themselves bobbing uncomfortably on a sea of grim reality. The noise and the partying next door must stop.

And this is where the film lost me. Of course it rapidly escalates into a scenario of one-upmanship and pranksmanship – two ships that can be amusing as stuff like Revenge of the Nerds and Old School have proven. However here the pranks swiftly grow beyond mean, and if you ignore the windswept hair, dreamy eyes and rippling six-pack, Teddy is a full functioning psychopath devoid of redemptive qualities.

Take for example the scene where Teddy sits in the frat den, staring intently at the images of his forebears and dreaming of his own alcohol fuelled exploits that will one day see him immortalised among them. But Teddy isn’t worried about that, he is obsessed. He is also obsessed with besting the pesky antique thirty-somethings next door. He is obsessed with doing them harm.

As the film continues, Teddy becomes more and more obsessed, and his obsession alienates more around him. I wish I could say the film plays it for laughs, but it doesn’t. Were it anyone without the godlike features of one Z Efron, this would be a troubling portrayal indeed. Somehow the rippling muscles and amazing hair deflect the concern that we should have about his psyche and the risk he poses to society.

Of course this violent intensity has the requisite effect on the Radners, and the film develops a dark undertone which effects their relationship and causes them to do (mildly more amusing) pranks of their own, even when calling the cops and dobbing in the brooding nutbag next door might prove a more sensible and swifter course of action.

There are amusing moments – if you ignore for a second that an airbag deployed at the wrong point could be crippling to the victim – and I mean who wouldn’t ignore that? But I think ultimately Bad Neighbours is less Revenge of the Nerds than it is Single White (Gorgeous) Male.

Final Rating – 6 / 10. I might be going one out here, but I prefer my alcohol fuelled comedies to have a little less brooding psychopath in them.

About OGR

While I try to throw a joke or two into proceedings when I can all of the opinions presented in my reviews are genuine. I don't expect that all will agree with my thoughts at all times nor would it be any fun if you did, so don't be shy in telling me where you think I went wrong... and hopefully if you think I got it right for once. Don't be shy, half the fun is in the conversation after the movie.
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