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) – as it is, in part, a surprisingly canny exploration of what happens to the generation that simply refuses to grow up when real life does actually start to catch up with it. Rogen and screen wife Rose Byrne are torn between wanting to be responsible, grown-up parents to their newborn daughter, and still wanting to kick back and have the sort of good time that their new frat-house neighbours are living twenty-four seven. For all of that, Andrew Cohen and Brendan O’Brien’s first feature script, in the reasonably safe hands of Nicholas Forgetting Sarah Marshall Stoller, isn’t entirely sure-footed – it goes for easy gross-out jokes a few times too often, and undersells the majority of a strong supporting cast (Chris Mintz-Plasse and Submarine‘s Craig Roberts are somewhat wasted, although there’s an excellent couple-of-scenes cameo from Lisa Kudrow, making you wonder why she doesn’t get more of this kind of stuff these days). The plot, too, is perhaps just a little too heavy on contrivances, especially as the conflict between the two sides escalates into increasing ludicrousness. But it does deliver laughs with a pretty solid regularity (including one absolutely sublime moment of slapstick that you simply won’t see coming), and its greatest strength is perhaps its most surprising: that is, the chemistry between Rogen and Zac Efron. All of a sudden, Channing Tatum has a bit of competition in the “rock hard abs allied to surprisingly strong comedic chops” stakes, and in Efron it comes from the unlikeliest of sources. He’s playing a difficult character – he is, essentially, the “villain” – but still manages to find a way into the audience’s sympathy. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.
Bad Neighbours Review
<span title='2025-08-28 00:00:00 +0000 UTC'>August 28, 2025</span> · 2 min · 319 words · Nickie Horne