DVD Review – Bad Neighbours
2 min read
Mac and Kelly Radner (Seth Rogan and Rose Byrne) are enjoying the quiet life in their dream home, raising their adorable baby girl Stella when the house next door is sold to a college fraternity. Not wanting to come off as un-cool, they make a verbal agreement with the frat president Teddy (Zac Efron) to never call the police in exchange for the frat “keeping it down”. This pact is quickly broken by both parties, which sets off a clever battle of wits between the Radner’s and the frat brothers.
When I heard the premise for Bad Neighbours, I wasn’t looking forward to two hours filled with silly sight gags, juvenile jokes about bodily functions, and cliché college fraternity references. But, what I found instead is that Bad Neighbours is unexpectedly funny and original. Though there are some of those things, the film doesn’t rely on them. Instead, most of the humor is driven by the hilarious banter between characters, much of it ad-libbed, in what turns out to be a focused and cohesive comedy.
The very talented cast works well together, and though this style of comedy may not suite everyone, I really enjoyed the way the characters acted out a scenario and then re-worked it several ways, expertly crafting the jokes into multi-faceted gems. With the exception of the “milking” scene which I felt was contrived and over-worked, the comedy seemed to organically evolve and was expertly edited to evoke an endless stream of chuckles from the audience, and sometimes uproarious laughter.
Overall, Bad Neighbours is a pleasant surprise in that it is enjoyable from beginning to end, and a welcome departure from the stereotypical frat house comedy.
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::: Renowned For Sound Technical Director and Film Reviewer ::: Robert is an IT geek, movie fan and part-time movie reviewer/editor. Robert also looks after the ‘behind the scenes’ technical elements of Renowned For Sound.