Let's be honest here, Zac Efron gets a lot of heat (here's a wrestling term 11 words in) for his roles in films over the years. But he's honestly not that terrible of an actor and has really grown out of his Disney star phase. When you can pair him with the people he was with in 'Neighbors' you get quite a pleasant performance out of him. All in a movie where you expect people like Seth Rogen, Dave Franco or Rose Byrne to outshine him. Why am I focusing on Zac Efron here? What I wanted to get across is, that even though he is a lead in this film, it shouldn't discourage you from giving this a watch. 'Neighbors' is actually a very fun movie.
'Neighbors' follows the story of Mac and Kelly Radner (Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne) who have a newborn daughter, Stella. They are feeling alienated from their old lifestyle and being able to go out with their friends Jimmy and Paula (Ike Barinholtz and Carla Gallo). One day they notice they have new neighbors moving in, it's a fraternity called Delta Psi Beta. Led by Teddy Sanders and Peter Regazolli (Zac Efron and Dave Franco), the frat aspires to make its mark on Dela Psi Beta's history when they throw their end of the year party. One night, Mac and Kelly ask Teddy if the frat can keep it down. He agrees on the condition, they they never call the cops, but go straight to him. The next night, Mac is unable to get a hold of Teddy to turn the music down and Kelly convinces him to call the police. They try to send an anonymous tip, but the police officer identifies them to Teddy as the people who called it in. This marks the beginning of the ever escalating battle between Delta Psi Beta and The Radner's.
I wasn't expecting much going into this, mostly because the trailer made this look like a very lackluster comedy. I love Seth Rogen and Dave Franco as well. But Rose Byrne isn't too big of a comedic powerhouse and Zac Efron isn't exactly filling the seats for comedy films either. Everyone surprised me though, as the main four have a fantastic chemistry and the interactions between Zac Efron, Dave Franco, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Jerrod Carmichael were side spilling at times. Don't get me wrong, Seth Rogen is great and Rose Byrne did a good job, but the biggest laughs this movie got out of me was from that foursome. The acting is fine in 'Neighbors,' for what this movie is, but the comedy is even better and that is what keeps this from being below average or mediocre. The story is quite alright too, it's coherent enough and has a lot more character development than I thought this type of movie would have. The supporting cast is pretty good throughout too as Ike Barinholtz, Carla Gallo, Hannibal Buress all play good roles and get time to let their comedic timing shine. The comedy isn't lacking either. It's produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, so it's filled to the brim it recurring gags, great one liners and awesome back-and-forths between almost every main character. There is some draggy parts, some scenes that didn't need to be in there and it might be a tad too long. None of this ruins the overall fun factor of this film, as you'll be hit with some good laughs all throughout this film.
I really liked 'Neighbors.' It's not the best comedy of the year, but it's one that gets the job done. The story won't win any awards, the acting won't be the best you'll ever see in a comedy, but this is movie you won't feel bad for watching. Seth Rogen is endearing, Zac Efron delivers another solid performance, Dave Franco is getting better and better with each film and it's always nice to have Rose Byrne in a supporting comedic role. 'Neighbors' is just plain fun.
Now this is my first actual review in awhile, so please forgive me if I'm a little rusty. I'd be lying if this a sequel I was looking forward to. I love over the top superhero movies and Kick-Ass was solid enough, even going back to re-watch it a month or so ago. I like the violence, action and humor for the most part, with the story being a fun origins one of sorts. Chloë Grace Moretz as Hit-Girl was a pleasant surprise, Nicholas Cage played a good role and it was (and is) nice to see Christopher Mintz-Plasse outside of comedic roles. One of the big things I did like about the first movie was how they handled Kick-Ass himself and it really reminded me of a Spider-Man lite story or sorts. I knew Kick-Ass 2 was either gonna be hit or miss, especially when the first one was borderline for me. This is a movie I wanted to like, but it's bogged do so badly by a bad script and scaled adaptation, it was hard for me to do so.
Kick-Ass 2 follows the stories of David Lezewski aka Kick-Ass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Mindy Macready aka Hit-Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz). David is now retired as Kick-Ass, but has spurred on ordinary citizens to becomes superheroes. He has a change of heart and asks Mindy to help him with training. Noticing him not being around, his girlfriend Katie Deauxma (Lyndsy Fonseca), assumes he's cheating on her and breaks up with him. Meanwhile, in the wake of his father and mothers death, Chris D'Amico, formerly Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), is letting his anger overtake him and vows to be the first supervillain, The Motherf***er. Upon being caught fighting crime as Hit-Girl, Mindy is forced to hang up her suit, to try and become a normal high school girl. Making friends, going out and joining the cheer leading squad, is not her ideal way to spend her days, before she begrudgingly gives in. Meanwhile Kick-Ass is now back in top form and doesn't want to fight alone. He seeks out a group of heroes called "Justice Forever", led by Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey). Turns out David's friend Marty Eisenberg aka Battle Guy (Clark Duke) is apart of the team. Other members of the team include Miranda Swendlow aka Night-Bitch (Lindy Booth) and Doctor Gravity (Donald Faison). While this group is taking on petty crime and a illegal brothel, The Motherf***er is gathering a team of supervillains to take over the world. With Hit-Girl struggling with who she is and the city cracking down on masked heroes, it's going to take everything to stop The Motherf***er.
We'll start with the good cause I actually really liked the action, humor and a couple of the performances in this. There were three in particular that I enjoyed. In his limited role, I really enjoyed Jim Carrey as Colonel Stars and Stripes. Long name aside, I feel he was the main focal point of the first part of the movie. While The Motherf***er was gathering recruits and Mindy going to sleepovers, Col. Stars and Stripes was preparing the heroes for the rest of it. Speaking of Mindy, Chloë Grace Moretz did a great job with what she was given. I wasn't too keen on how they handled he in the first part of the movie, but there will be more on that later. She came of as the struggling girl growing up well, yet kept that Hit-Girl air about her. Finally Christoper Mintz-Plasse as The Motherf***er was pretty cool. The humor was there, but you could tell he was playing the evil, demented, villain bent on destruction. I'll throw in Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Kick-Ass here. While he didn't give a stand-out performance, this is a movie based around Kick-Ass, obviously and the story would go nowhere without him. He was a good on-screen presence. Moving onto the action, it was better than the first overall I think. While nothing beats the hallway scene involving Hit-Girl from the first movie, everything in this seemed pretty real. From the mugging scene to start, to the first brawl the Justice Forever team has in the brothel, it all feels authentic and brutal. Plus when a guys hand gets chopped off or a grown mean beats down a bouncer with a bat, you think to yourself, "I don't want this happening to me in the slightest". Finally, the humor was pretty good throughout as well. Anything involving Jim Carrey was well as Christopher Mintz-Plasse, is bound to have a few laugh out loud moments. While this is an action comic book adaptation, it's full of one liners. The much talked about "rape" scene aside, there's a lot of funny in this. Not to mention the Hit-Girl character is one of the most fun in the movie as a whole.
The bad is what obliterates this movie for me. Starting with the story and writing. Kick-Ass, is for all intensive purposes a comic that pushes the boundaries. While at times this feels "edgy", it never reaches that shock value level I think the comics go for. Having not read the comics I can only imagine, but I think the studio's making this may have toned it down a bit. This felt like a movie that could go all the way but was being held back. Also the story, my goodness the story. They try to cram so much into this that everything feel rushed. What doesn't feel rushed, like the Hit-Girl "making friends" scenes, are entirely too overbearing and felt long to me. I would say that adding another twenty or thirty minutes to this could've evened things out, but adding more to a rushed script would have dragged out the bad even more more. On the flip side, removing anything would make the short movie shorter. While it feels long, it's not, and removing stuff, just takes away from the few good things this has to offer. While I praised the acting of the few, the cast as a whole, was definitely a let down. Clark Duke was given a prominent role as Battle Guy, and it felt like he was hardly in the movie. The girlfriend was relegated to a cameo, only to break up with the main character in a forgettable minute. Meanwhile people like Donald Faison and Lindy Booth, as two of the bigger support heroes, Night-Bitch and Doctor Gravity, are out shined, and again, wholly forgettable. Oh yeah, John Leguizamo is in this, I almost forgot. Why? I will say though, the main supervillain team is all but lost on me, save for Olga Kurkulina as Katryna Dubrovsky aka Mother Russia. I didn't feel comfortable adding her to the "stars" list, but she needs some recognition outside of The Motherf***er as the decent number two baddie. The green screen is still heavily used in this, but it doesn't look near a obvious as the first. The style and look of the movie is pretty on par with the first as well. Doesn't mean it didn't blew me away in the slightest. While the score, scenery and cinematography are nothing to write home about either.
Like I stated in my introduction, I was really looking forward to this. Kick-Ass 2 looked to be a fun sequel to a decent original. While it is fun, has a few really good performances and good stylized action, that's about the extent of the good in my eyes. The is the epitome of the turn your brain off action film, though it's a bit more violent than most would be used to. Jim Carrey filled the Nicholas Cage role from the last movie, thought with less impact. While the main three in Kick-Ass, Hit-Girl and now The Motherf***er all reprised their roles pretty well. Bogged down by a rushed script (even if it wasn't rushed it felt that way), lazy writing and lacking performances, this, to me, is the first major disappointment this year. Good for one watch if you liked the first one like I did. But, I don't think this is one you're gonna wanna go back to. I may read the comics to compare, but I'd rather just watch the first one if I need to get my kick-ass dosage in the future.
Oh Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, you somehow take a lacking comedy year and turn it on it's head with this comedy, action, apocalyptic, horror laugh riot. These are the guys who have brought us Superbad and Pineapple Express, the latter being one of my favorite comedies of the 2000s. You all know Seth Rogen and his crew by now. Most all them appear in each others movies as main characters, cameos, writers or producers. These guys form a close knit team that have been in the business of comedy for the past decade. From Knocked Up to Forgetting Sarah Marshall these guys can always be found in at least a pair in some of the biggest comedies since 2000. This Is The End is not the movie you think you're gonna see from the trailers. It quickly turns into the most outrageous inside joke you'll ever be apart of as these guys try to survive as exaggerated versions of themselves in this post apocalyptic comedy.
This Is The End follows the story of James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride and Craig Robinson as they ride out the apocalypse in James Franco's home. The movie opens with Jay arriving in LA to hang out with Seth. They end up playing video games and smoking weed all day. Seth informs Jay of a housewarming party Franco is throwing, and says that they should go. Jay is apprehensive, cause he's not really friends with Franco and Jonah the way Rogen is. Jay eventually agrees and they head to the party. A who's who of comedians are there including a coked up Michael Cera, Jason Segel, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Kevin Hart, Aziz Ansari and even Emma Watson and Rihanna. Halfway through the party, Jay needs a breather, so he and Seth go to get some smokes. That's when everything goes south. While at convenience store, blue lights start sucking people into the sky and mass panic ensues. Jay and Seth rush back to Franco's house where it seems like nothing has happened. Jay tries to warm the party goers to no avail. A tremor shakes the house and everyone rushes outside to see LA engulfed in flames. A sink hole opens up and swallows a lot of the people, while other just hightail it. Franco, Jonah, Jay, Seth, Danny and Craig survive and decide to hold up in in Franco's house and fortify it. As the apocalypse grows older by the day the group faces trials, such as running out of food and water, self realizations and face their inner demons. The group must band together and figure out how to survive the end of the world.
The worst thing about this movie is actually pacing. I'm dead serious. I've racked my brain around this movie since I saw it Thursday night and the very worst thing I can think of is that. The movie is nearly two hours, and while it doesn't always feel like it, there are draggy scenes throughout this. I think if they had cut 10 minutes out of this, or added five or so at the tail end, it could easily be even better. All my other complaints are pretty minor. The story is almost too fun, it doesn't take itself seriously as semi-horror and kinda hurts it, especially at the end. While I know this is a comedy and fun is the name of the game, if you're gonna brand it as "post apocalyptic", I can't be laughing at Aziz Ansari falling to his death. If you're gonna give me horror inklings, I can't be laughing at Channing Tatum's butt. I never got the sense that any of the main characters had a chance of dying, even with everything going on around them. The ending is weird as well, not that it's terrible, it's just so out of nowhere I still don't know what to think of it. It's just so abrupt it caught me off guard I think. My only regret is that I now live in a smaller town, and this is the type of movie I'd have loved to see with a huge crowd. Not just me and like six other people. This isn't a knock on the movie at all, but more me venting that I miss living in a big city haha.
The main cast, and even then smaller parts from the cameos, are some of the best exaggerations of themselves ever. Emma Watson was great as the Emma Watson that would kick your ass if you crossed her. Jason Segel had a great little bit part calling out "How I Met Your Mother". While a coked up, womanizer Michael Cera was side splitting. James Franco played the perfect elitist Hollywood guy, only sticking with his best friend in Rogen. Jonah Hill may have the best character in this movie because of the insincerity laced in every line that comes out of his mouth. Seth Rogen and Jay Baruchel are the best friends who are at a disconnect in their lives, but neither of them want to admit it to each other. Danny McBride morphs from the lovable jerk to the evil mastermind throughout the course of this. Finally Craig Robinson goes from the happy go lucky Darryl (from "The Office") type guy, to someone who is just trying to fit in and survive with this group. There is no other way to categorize all of these portrayals, than genius. Pick any two, stick them together and they someone is going to make you laugh. Put all of them together, like when they start making sequels to their previous movies, and it becomes a riot. This movie is funny, from start to finish. Sure it takes maybe 15 minutes to get its footing. But once Danny McBride starts making breakfast, oblivious to the apocalypse, This Is The End never lets off the gas pedal. There is a good soundtrack, okay visuals (the CGI in this is surprisingly good) and Franco's house turns out to be one of the best settings for a movie
This Is The End is the best comedy of the year so far, by a landslide. Not only that, for me, it's the best movie of the year released so far. Pacing problems, draggy scenes aside, this is a damn funny movie. It has an abundance of jokes, movies references and bits, jabs at each others careers and callbacks littered throughout. I can't wait to watch this again to pick out all the things I may have missed the first time. The acting is great, the music is good, the visuals are okay and the story is passable. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg haven't broken any new ground with the comedy in this. This is the same comedy style, wrapped around a story about the apocalypse. But you know what? They hit it out of the park.
