Brittany Harvey offers a much-belated criticism of Nicholas Stoller's Neighbors (2014):
I realize writing about this movie is not exactly
timely, considering when it came out, but my husband and I just watched it. It
was dumb. I like a lot of dumb movies—usually those starring former cast
members of Freaks and Geeks are my
favorites—but even Seth Rogan could not pull this one out of the depths of its
excuses for humor. Basically, it is a movie about a bunch of people who are all
discontent with their present lives, who through the unsuspecting plot twists
and wild antics, realize their lives are not that bad. The problem is that in
order to arrive at the newly found contentment, all the characters must be
absolutely, unrelenting in their awfulness toward one another. Violence, lies,
deception, adultery, and tattle tales are the means every character uses to relate
to one another. The depiction of humanity the movie creates is bleak, and we
are supposed to laugh right along as neighbors fight each other, launch
firecrackers at one another, and drink each other to oblivion.
