New Zac Efron ‘Neighbors’ Movie Received Mostly Positive Reviews From Major Critics
Universal Pictures released their new comedy flick, “Neighbors’ into theaters today,and the reviews are in from the top critics in the business. It turns out that the movie received mostly positive praise with an overall 69 score out of a 100 score across 38 reviews at the Metacritic.com site.
The film stars: Seth Rogen, Zac Efron, Rose Byrne, Dave Franco, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Jerrod Carmichael. We’ve included blurbs from a few of the critics,below.
Chris Nashawaty over at Entertainment Weekly, gave it a great 83 score, saying,”Speaking in her native Aussie twang, Byrne shows that she’s a deadpan comic ace. And thanks to her chemistry with Rogen, Neighbors proves that just because you grow up doesn’t mean you have to be a grown-up.”
Betsy Sharkey over at the Los Angeles Times, gave it an 80 score. She stated: “This raunchy unrooting of a settled suburban idyll exposes the considerable angst of emerging adulthood with a kind of scatological fervor designed to elicit oodles of inappropriate laughs. It succeeds.”
John DeFore over at The Hollywood Reporter, gave it an 80 score. He said: “Very funny at the outset and escalating steadily for most of its brisk running time, the film represents a big win for neophyte screenwriters Andrew J. Cohen and Brendan O’Brien.”
Claudia Puig from USA Today, gave it a 75, saying: “Neighbors is the “Animal House” for an era in which food fights seem quaint.” Mick LaSalle from the San Francisco Chronicle, gave it a 75 score too, stating, “Neighbors is funny for all 96 of its minutes, not counting the credits, and it contains the single best sight gag of the year so far. (We’re talking laugh-out-loud funny and then laugh again later, just thinking about it.)”
Richard Roeper from the Chicago Sun-Times, gave it a 75 grade. He stated: “About 40 percent of Neighbors falls flat. About 60 percent made me laugh hard, even when I knew I should have known better.” Peter Travers over at Rolling Stone gave it a 75 score. He said: “You expect hardcore hilarity from Neighbors, and you get it. It’s the nuance that sneaks up on you.”
Ty Burr from the Boston Globe, gave it another 75. He stated: “The crassly funny, not entirely irrelevant comedy Neighbors represents something of a watershed: the moment when all those Judd Apatow bad boys tremble on the edge of maturity, look back, and see the soulless face of a younger generation gaining on them. The face belongs to Zac Efron.”
Michael Phillips over at the Chicago Tribune, gave it a 75 score. He said: “One part smart, one part stupid and three parts jokes about body parts, the extremely raunchy Neighbors is a strange success story.”
A.O. Scott from the New York Times, gave it a 70 score, saying: “Neighbors is not a great film and does not really aspire to be. It is more a status report on mainstream American movie comedy, operating in a sweet spot between the friendly and the nasty, and not straining to be daring, obnoxious or even especially original. It knows how to have fun. How very grown-up.”
Andrew Barker from Variety, gave it a 70 score, stating, “Lewder, weirder, louder, leaner, meaner and more winningly stupid than anything its director Nicholas Stoller and star Seth Rogen have ever been involved with before, frat comedy Neighbors boasts an almost oppressive volume of outrageous gags.”
Ann Hornaday at the Washington Post, gave it a 50 grade. She said: “A shaggy, baggy collegiate comedy that is less a coherent movie than a loosely assembled series of lewd jokes and punishing slapstick routines.” Kyle Smith over at the New York Post, gave it a 50, saying: “A central problem: Efron isn’t funny.”
Finally, Joe Neumaier from the New York Daily News, really didn’t like, giving it a very bad 20 score. He stated: “Neighbors stakes its claim in suburban-property cliches. Given the dull, stale results, maybe the end of the world was a better fit.” Stay tuned. Also, get your favorite Movie stuff, and more by Clicking Here.
