Neighbors

Director: Nicholas Stoller
With: Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne, Zac Efron, Dave Franco

Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne are a young couple with a newborn baby living a quiet suburban life until a group of noisy fraternity boys (Zac Efron, Dave Franco) moved adjacent to their house, whose goal is to throw a massive end-of-the-schoolyear party.

Not the biggest fan of this kind of comedy but Neighbors is one of the few of its kind that provided legit chuckles (and cringe as well). From Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne's trying-to-be-cool couple to Efron and Franco's bromance filled antics, plus their non-stop bickering of who should be the boss of their area -- it's the competition that makes this comedy an enjoyable ride coupled with the lovely display of Byrne and Rogen's characters inexperienced parenthood.

It's also not short of touching moments. Albeit those moments sometimes are forced, the addition of them especially at the end showing the couple's decision to stay to their quiet lives to which they refer as their kind of party is heart-melting.

Seth Rogen is on a roll. If there's one actor who continuously produces comedy mainstream films, it's him. The great thing about him is that he's everywhere even in some dramatic films like 50/50 and Take This Waltz. Aside from acting, he also produces, writes and directs, etc. The guy has talent and to some degree, a little underrated.

The same thing I can say about Rose Byrne. I've always been a fan of her since Wicker Park but her choices of projects lately I must say even though they're not as serious as her TV series Damages, or Dannny Boyle's Sunshine, or The Place Beyond the Pines and other weighty stuff, she's choosing roles that puts her on the mainstream map. She's been in X-Men First Class, Insidious, Bridesmaids, and here Neighbors, and then she's also in This is Where I Leave You and the upcoming reboot of Annie. I must say she's having a great career which I hope will continue until she gets awards recognition.

Zac Efron here also added to his credentials of leaving the pretty boy reputation that he's got from his Disney days. He's always been a great actor, and a comedian to boot so he's got great future in any genre that he chooses. Even one of my friends declared that he's going to have a career the same path as Matthew McConaughey. I could see that happening with him. Dave Franco is a great newbie and he's one of the characters that provided outrageous laughs from me. With the current condition of James Franco, I think he's going to be a promising actor that could possibly surpass the reputation of his brother. That depends if James Franco won't get his shit together. Oh well, James Franco is still receiving great projects anyway. That's good for the Franco brothers. Can I also say that Lisa Kudrow was great in this? With only having two scenes as a ridiculous dean, she added yet another lulzy character to her filmography. It's starting to become a collection for her.

Neighbors is a simple comedy without any groundbreaking material, but with the good showing from the leads, a good clash to follow, a decent amount of comedy and cute moments here and there, it's much better than the tryhards we often see in comedy nowadays.