Bad Neighbours
(aka Neighbors)
(2014)
The mystifying career of Seth Rogen continues its
ascendency. I’d suggest he had honed playing a boorish oaf to the point of
perfection, but since he is a boorish
oaf there’s no real effort involved. Most mystifying of the many mystifying
aspects of Bad Neighbours (Neighbors in the US, perhaps because all Neighbours are bad there, so they
didn’t need to qualify the title, or because they actually thought UK and
Australian viewers might think this was the big screen version of the soap, the
same way Avengers Assemble might have
been otherwise mistaken for the return of John Steed and Mrs Peel) is the
notion that Rogen could possibly be married to Rose Byrne.
Of course, Rogen has history with impossibly
out-of-his-league co-stars (Katherine Heigl), and, to be fair to him, he isn’t
shy about putting his unenviable body out there as an object of ridicule. I
wish he was. Unattractive bodies are usually only funny if the wearer of said unattractive
body is funny. Rogen’s perpetual humour operandi is to make unfunny jokes about
bodily functions, mostly his cock, or someone else’s cock, homophobic or sexist
remarks that he thinks are okay because he’s kind-of sort-of self-aware, and,
most of all, weed. Did you know he loves it? Really, really loves it? This may
be why his quality control is negligible. Everything is so much funnier when
you’re stoned, you see.
Rogen’s best bud (not in a gay way, though), the ubiquitous
James Franco doesn’t appear this time out. Instead, Rogen has to do for James’
creepy younger brother Dave. He’s Pete, vice-president of Delta Psi Beta, a
college fraternity that moves in next door to Mac (Rogen) and Kelly Radner
(Byrne). Pete can summon an instant erection as a party trick. President of the
fraternity is Teddy (Zac Effron, who might have been down the gym a bit before
making the movie. I’m not quite sure). Having a baby and a job, and needing to
sleep to boot, Mac and Kelly understandably are none-too chuffed at the
all-night parties that ensue, so call the police when Teddy fails to keep the
noise down. Which results in all-out war being waged.
Under normal circumstances there would be no question that
sympathies lie with the married couple, but normal circumstances wouldn’t
include schlubby Rogen. Seth reminds us straight away what a fantastic comedian
he is by launching into a litany of improvised yuks that include Batman
impressions, peeing with Effron, lying naked on top of Byrne, and generally being
objectionably coarse and uncouth. One can only assume Byrne is a trooper to put
up with all this, a predominately male set with no end of laddish antics. On
the other hand, she’s Australian so she probably fitted right in.
So it’s a close thing, but these frat kids are still a bunch
of unholy shits (as is evidenced by their treatment of one of their least cool
and therfore most-abused members, nicknamed Assjuice). When war escalates, Mac
floods their basement and Kelly (in one of the few sequences that is actually smartly
conceived) induces Pete to cop off with Teddy’s girlfriend. The fraternity
retaliate by placing car airbags around the house, in places an unsuspecting
baby might well rest for a moment. The frat boys aren’t the most irresponsible
kids on the block, however, as Mac and Kelly are the kind of parents who leave
their baby alone in the house all night (baby monitor or no). This might be a
blessing, as any baby that doesn’t have to grow up being gurned and hucked at
by Rogen is a fortunate baby.
This being a post-Apatow comedy of the gross-out oeuvre, and
consequently boundary pushing in the most tiresome ways (which roughly means,
the more outrageous it is, the funnier it is), there are no end of penis and
bodily function gags. The guys all make dildos and sell them for big bucks! Rogen and Effron have a fight with them! The
baby nearly eats a condom and then the doctor at the hospital jokes, “Your baby has HIV!” (I know, right,
because only squares wouldn’t find that a hoot). Christopher Mintz-Plasse (he
had to turn up, didn’t he?) has a extremely long penis, which Carlo Gallo wears as
a necklace. Absolutely priceless! An extended scene involving Mac milking Kelly
features the odd mildly funny line, but wears the patience by going on for way
too long.
On the plus side, Lisa Kudrow consistently raises the laugh bar in her cameo
as the dean of the university, Byrne should do more comedy, and Hannibal Buress
gets to indulge a string of Garfield jokes (“I hate Monday. I love lasagne”) as Officer Watkins and there’s a Six Million Dollar Man sound effect.
Director Nicholas Stoller’s career actually seems on the descendent
quality-wise (no mean feat since he wrote Gulliver’s
Travels) and hitching himself to Rogen’s train does him absolutely no
favours. Despite Bad Neighbours
featuring no likeable characters it somehow manages to conclude with everyone becoming
best of pals. They all mean well really. This is sloppy, coarse and moronic.
The usual Seth Rogen movie, basically.
a
ReplyDelete