Neighbors (2014 film)

Plot

Mac (Seth Rogen) and Kelly Radner (Rose Byrne) are a young couple with an infant daughter, Stella. The restrictions of parenthood make it difficult for them to maintain their old lifestyle, which alienates them from their friends Jimmy Blevins (Ike Barinholtz) and his ex-wife, Paula (Carla Gallo). One day, the couple finds out that Delta Psi Beta, a fraternity known for their outrageous parties, has moved into an adjacent house. The fraternity's leaders, Teddy Sanders (Zac Efron) and Pete Regazolli (Dave Franco), aspire to join Delta Psi's Hall of Fame by throwing a massive end-of-the-year party.

One night, the couple ask Teddy to keep the noise down. Teddy agrees on the condition that Mac and Kelly promise to always call him instead of calling the police. To earn Mac and Kelly's favor, Teddy invites them to join the party, which the couple agree to. At the party, Kelly meets Teddy's girlfriend Brooke Shy (Halston Sage) and Teddy shows Mac his bedroom, which includes a stash of fireworks and a breaker box that controls their power.

The following night, Mac tries his best to call Teddy but is unable to get in touch with him to ask him to keep it down so that their baby can sleep. Kelly convinces Mac to call the police and report the party as an anonymous person, but Officer Watkins (Hannibal Buress) identifies them to Teddy. Teddy feels betrayed that his new friends went back on their promise. The following day, Delta Psi constantly hazes Mac and Kelly, resulting in Stella nearly eating an unused condom after garbage from their party trash is dumped all over their lawn. The couple goes to the college dean Carol Gladstone (Lisa Kudrow) and learn that the school has a three strikes policy before they intervene with punishment; burning down their old house was Delta Psi's first strike.

After failing to force the fraternity to move by damaging their house, Kelly manipulates Pete and Brooke into having sex and Mac gets Teddy to catch them. Teddy and Pete fight, which ends with a barbecue grill being rolled into the path of a passing car and injuring a professor, giving Delta Psi their second strike and placing the fraternity on probation for the remainder of the year, effectively ending their party plans. To acquire evidence of Delta Psi's hazing, Kelly and Mac hire a pledge nicknamed Assjuice (Craig Roberts) to stand up to Teddy to record him threatening retaliation. When Teddy instead shows him kindness, he reveals that Mac and Kelly hired him and also damaged their house. Teddy begins playing violent pranks on the couple.

Mac and Kelly send Teddy a counterfeit letter from Gladstone enabling them to have parties again, and Teddy begins planning their end-of-the-year bash. Once the party is in full swing, the Radners call Watkins to complain about the noise. Teddy discovers the random strangers sent by Mac, Kelly and Jimmy. After finding a flyer about the party and determining the letter is counterfeit, he stops the party just as Watkins arrives. Jimmy throws himself from the balcony to distract Teddy, allowing Mac and Kelly to sneak into Teddy's bedroom and restart the party using the breaker box. Teddy catches them and fights Mac, while Kelly lights one of the fireworks and shoots it at Watkins's patrol car, while Paula convinces one of the Frat boys to turn the breaker box, resuming the huge party while the police officer is still there. Teddy takes the blame for the party and convinces Pete to take the others and flee. Gladstone shuts the house down and Mac and Kelly return home, adjusting to their new lives. Jimmy and Paula also get back together.

Four months later, Mac is at an outdoor shopping mall when he runs into Teddy, who is working as a shirtless greeter at Abercrombie & Fitch. The two greet each other warmly and Teddy tells Mac that he is attending night classes to complete his degree. Mac takes off his shirt and jokingly acts as a greeter with Teddy.

Mac and Kelly later take pictures of Stella dressed in various costumes for a calendar. They get a call from Jimmy and Paula, who are attending Burning Man and invite the couple to come, including Stella. Mac and Kelly decline, accepting their new roles as parents.

Cast

Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone, Adam DeVine, Blake Anderson, Anders Holm, Kyle Newacheck, and Jake Johnson all have cameo appearances as former Delta Psi members.

Production

Seth Rogen and Zac Efron became attached to the film before it was pitched to studios. Universal and New Line Cinema put in bids for the film, with Universal eventually securing the rights of the then-untitled project in July 2011, which was written by Andrew J. Cohen and Brendan O'Brien. The script was written shortly after. It was inspired by Cohen and O'Brien's fear of adulthood. In May 2012, Nicholas Stoller was in talks to direct the film. The story was originally about Rogen's character and students in a frat but as it was too similar to Old School, Stoller changed the focus on Rogen's character and his wife against the frat students. Producer Evan Goldberg said: "The initial idea was frat war with Zac Efron. Maybe Seth, but definitely Zac Efron." Byrne's role grew from a footnote relegated to the responsibilities of adulthood to a full-on partner-in-crime. Cohen also said: "Initially, our biggest problem with the script was that it was too repetitious, and amping up Kelly’s involvement and bringing her into the war broke everything wide open." Rogen welcomed the change, "to me that made it even better because it became less about me and some guys fucking with a frat. It was much more about me and my wife, which was way more interesting." The cast and crew had two weeks of rehearsals during which they practised improvisation.

Principal photography began in April 2013 and was completed by the end of May 2013 in Los Angeles, United States. Filming lasted 38 days. The two houses used in the film are situated in the West Adams District of Los Angeles.

Cameras and iPhones were distributed to extras, partygoers, and cast members for additional first-person perspective. On August 26, 2013, the film's original title Townies was changed to Neighbors. The film was released as Bad Neighbours outside of the U.S., to prevent confusion with the similarly titled Australian soap opera. Movie trailers released outside of the U.S. have exploited the movie title's similarity to the Australian soap.

A "work-in-progress" cut of the film was screened on March 8, 2014, at The Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas during South by Southwest.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 73% based on 206 reviews with an average rating of 6.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "With plenty of bawdy humor evenly spread between its well-matched stars, Neighbors earns its R rating -- and filmgoers' laughs." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 68 out of 100 based on 45 critics. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

Critics praised Efron's performance, and noted that he had successfully shed the "Disney kid" pretty boy stereotype. Critics also praised Byrne's performance and the writers' decision to have her character be a co-conspirator with Rogen's character as opposed to having her on the sidelines.

Box office

Neighbors has grossed $150,157,400 in North America and $120,507,734 in other territories for a worldwide total of $270,665,134 against a budget of $18 million. Calculating in all expenses, Deadline.com estimated that the film made a profit of $136.1 million. It is Rogen's highest grossing non-animated film, surpassing Knocked Up ($219.1 million).

The film grossed $49 million in its opening weekend in North America, finishing the weekend in first place at the box office. The opening total was the third highest United States opening for a non-sequel R-rated comedy behind Sex and the City ($57 million) in 2008 and Ted ($54.4 million) in 2012.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was released as a digital download in the US on April 29, 2014, and in the UK on May 12, 2014.

Sequel

On February 6, 2015, it was announced that a sequel to Neighbors is in development, entitled Sorority Rising, with Stoller set to return to direct. Once again written by Andrew J. Cohen and Brendan O'Brien, the film follows Mac and Kelly joining forces with Teddy to take on the sorority girls who move into the old frat house. Rogen, Byrne and Efron, as well as Franco, Barinholtz and Gallo, all reprised their roles. On July 23, 2015, Chloë Grace Moretz signed onto the sequel. Kiersey Clemons, Beanie Feldstein and Selena Gomez also joined the cast. Principal photography began in mid-2015 and the film was released May 20, 2016.