'Bad Neighbours' review by Captain Raptor

'Bad Neighbours' review by Captain Raptor

A crude, partially improvised comedy wherein Seth Rogen plays a childish man. Must be Tuesday. By no stretch of the imagination is Bad Neighbours breaking open the idea bank, but something I learnt last year was that the road most traveled can often be the funniest one, due to We're The Millers' surprising surpassing of the more original but ultimately less entertaining The World's End and Rogen's own previous effort. An amusing trailer and positive press sealed the deal, and so onwards I went.

True to form, Seth Rogen is Seth Rogen, and whether you like or dislike him is unlikely to be altered by his performance here. I felt he was funny, but the highest praise must undoubtedly go to Rose Byrne, who gleefully ups the ante on the petty warfare between fraternity and family at every turn. Her delivery is impeccable and it's especially pleasing given the R-rated comedy genre's tendency to relegate all wives to nagging reactionary characters. Zac Efron is funnier than you might expect but he's nothing special, and he's somewhat undercut by strong support from secondary frat boys Jerrod Carmichael and Dave Franco. The cast gel together extraordinarily well and they're a joy to watch, but they're only enabled to do this by a riotous script from newcomers Andrew J Cohen and Brendan O'Brien. The comedy is provided far more by events than it is by dialogue, and while these events are often extremely lewd, there's enough of the film devoted to other elements (perhaps most pleasing is the scene involving a 'Robert De Niro party') that it never dissolves into pure puerility. 

Perhaps one of the things that make Bad Neighbours so enjoyable is that there's a genuine warmth behind the chaos and dick jokes. All the characters are presented as sympathetic, and the film fleetingly touches on the issues of growing old, stagnating relationships and fear of the future. Director Nicholas Stoller never allows this to interrupt the flow or put a dampener on the fun, but it adds some arguably needed intelligence to the backdrop as well as enabling the viewer to relate to the otherwise mostly one-dimensional characters that populate this film. With a firm base to start from, the anarchic back-and-forth of the escalating pranks has a sense of structure rather than just feeling like a set of sketches. It's not a perfect film by any means - it's quite slow to begin with, a few of the jokes are really obvious, and although Rogen and Byrne's baby acts as the major plot motivation, the script seems to pretty much forget it exists at times - but once it gets going it's consistently funny throughout, without ever really losing its sense of purpose.

Bad Neighbours is a very funny film, which ultimately overshadows any other flaws it has. It pulls no punches, and the filthiness is nicely blended in with other types of humour rather than being the sole arrow in the film's quiver. A strong, charismatic cast makes the most of the script's frantic fun, and Rose Byrne's spirited performance is a particular treat. It's quite silly, but unabashedly so, and the jokes have an occasional darker or smarter streak that prevent the more tried-and-tested material from stagnating. It doesn't break new ground, but it doesn't try to - its aim is a simple one, and it's one that it fully accomplishes.