The film premiered at South by Southwest on March 8, 2014, and was released on May 9 in the United States. The film received generally positive reviews, with praise aimed at Efron's breakout performance, and was a commercial success, grossing over $270 million worldwide, and became Rogen's highest-grossing live-action film. A sequel, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, was released on May 20, 2016, with Stoller returning to direct, and much of the cast reprising their roles.
Plot
Mac Radner and his Australian-born wife Kelly are adjusting to life with their 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 and his ex-wife, Paula. Delta Psi Beta, a fraternity known for outrageous parties, moves in next door. The fraternity's leaders, Teddy Sanders and Pete Regazolli, aspire to join Delta Psi's Hall of Fame by throwing a massive end-of-the-year party.
The Radners ask Teddy to keep the noise down and to earn their favor, he invites them to join the party. Kelly meets Teddy's girlfriend Brooke Shy, and Teddy shows Mac his bedroom, which includes a stash of fireworks and a breaker box that controls the house’s power. Teddy agrees to manage the noise but has Mac and Kelly promise to always call him instead of the police. The following night, when the party next door keeps Stella awake, Mac is unable to reach Teddy. Kelly convinces Mac to call the police anonymously, but Officer Watkins identifies them to Teddy. Betrayed, Teddy leads Delta Psi in hazing Mac and Kelly, resulting in Stella nearly eating an unused condom after the fraternity dumps their garbage on the Radners’ lawn. Mac and Kelly go to the college dean Carol Gladstone, but the school has a “three strikes” policy before it will intervene; Delta Psi's first strike was burning down their old house.
Failing to force the fraternity to move by damaging their house, Kelly manipulates Pete and Brooke into having sex, and Mac leads Teddy to catch them in the act. Teddy and Pete fight and a barbecue grill injures a passing professor. This gives Delta Psi their second strike and places them on probation, effectively ending their party plans. Determined to shut down the fraternity, Mac and Kelly enlist the help of Jimmy, who is jealous that Paula is sleeping with Delta Psi member Scoonie. To acquire evidence of Delta Psi's hazing, they hire a pledge nicknamed Assjuice to stand up to Teddy and record him threatening retaliation. When Teddy instead shows him kindness, he reveals that Mac and Kelly hired him and are trying to sabotage the fraternity. A vengeful Teddy violently pranks the Radners and Jimmy with airbags.
They send Teddy a counterfeit letter from Gladstone lifting Delta Psi’s probation. The fraternity prepares for its end-of-the-year party, which Mac, Kelly, and Jimmy widely publicize to ensure it will be out of control. Once the party is in full swing, they notify the police, but Teddy realizes what the Radners have done, and stops the party just as Watkins arrives. Jimmy throws himself from the balcony to distract Teddy, allowing Kelly to sneak into Teddy's bedroom as Mac fights him off. Unable to open the breaker box to restart the party and alert Watkins, Kelly shoots one of the fireworks at his patrol car. Paula convinces Scoonie to turn on the power, reigniting the party, and she reunites with Jimmy. Teddy takes the blame for the party, convincing Pete to flee with the others, and is arrested; the fraternity is shut down.
Four months later, Mac runs into Teddy, who is working as a shirtless greeter at Abercrombie & Fitch. They greet each other warmly and Teddy reveals he is attending night classes to complete his degree. Mac takes off his shirt and jokingly acts as a greeter with Teddy. Later, Mac and Kelly take pictures of Stella in various costumes for a calendar. They get a call from Jimmy and Paula inviting them to attend Burning Man. Mac and Kelly decline, accepting their new roles as parents.
Seth Rogen and Zac Efron became attached to the film before it was pitched to studios.[3]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.[4] The script was written shortly after.[3] It was inspired by Cohen and O'Brien's fear of adulthood.[5]: 3 In May 2012, Nicholas Stoller was in talks to direct the film.[6] 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 script so that it would 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."[3] 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."[5]: 6 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."[3] The cast and crew had two weeks of rehearsals during which they practiced improvisation.[5]
Cameras and iPhones were distributed to extras, partygoers, and cast members for additional first-person perspective.[5]: 11 On August 26, 2013, the film's original title Townies was changed to Neighbors.[10] The film was released as Bad Neighbours outside of the U.S., to prevent confusion with the similarly titled Australian soap opera. Compared with other English-speaking countries, the Australian soap was not widely known in the U.S. at the time the movie was released.[11][12][13]
Neighbors grossed $150.2 million in North America and $120.5 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $270.7 million against a budget of $18 million,[2] which is more than 50% less than the average film budget. Since this was the case, all of the actors had to undergo major pay cuts. Calculating in all expenses, Deadline Hollywood estimated that the film made a profit of $136.1 million.[15] It is Rogen's highest grossing non-animated film, surpassing Knocked Up ($219.1 million).[16]
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.[17]
Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 73% based on 224 reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "With plenty of bawdy humor evenly spread between its well-matched stars, Neighbors earns its R rating -- and filmgoers' laughs."[18] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 68 out of 100 based on 45 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[19] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.[20]
Critics praised Efron's performance, and noted that he had successfully shed the "Disney kid" pretty boy stereotype.[21][22] 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.[23]
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. Chloë Grace Moretz,[29][30]Kiersey Clemons, Beanie Feldstein, and Selena Gomez also joined the cast.[31]Principal photography began in mid-2015 and the film was released May 20, 2016.
^Patric, Seb (May 2014). "Bad Neighbours review". denofgeeks.com. Retrieved July 15, 2014. ...As it happens, this exact question is at the very centre of Bad Neighbours (renamed over here from its US title Neighbors, for obvious Australian-soap-confusion-avoidance reasons)...
^Glasby, Matt. "Bad Neighbours Review". Totalfilm.com. Retrieved July 15, 2014. ...Called Neighbors in the States, where the words Ramsay Street mean nothing...
^"Neighbors (Bad Neighbours)". Malone's Movie Minute. Retrieved July 15, 2014. ...Neighbors, which is called Bad Neighbours in Australia, lest you think this was a feature length version of the Aussie TV soap opera…
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