Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Mac (Seth Rogen) and Kelly Radner (Rose Byrne) have a new baby, a new house, and, unfortunately, new neighbors. When a hard-partying fraternity moves in next door, the Radners’ blood pressure skyrockets as their property value plummets and they become locked in a contest of wits and wills with frat president Teddy Sanders (Zac Efron). Funny yet forgettable, Neighbors falls short of Nicholas Stoller’s previous directorial efforts (Get Him to the Greek, Forgetting Sarah Marshall), a consequence of the threadbare script and nonexistent chemistry between the male leads.

As you’d expect from an A-list studio effort, production values are superb. Audio is notable not only for the high quality of its dialogue articulation, but for the dynamics and detail that accompany the raucous, pounding songs chosen for the countless party scenes. In fact, virtually the entire film is distinguished by punchy, sometimes startling dynamics and expansive frequency range. Credit the generous use of subwoofer and surround channels, which are masterfully mixed to augment front channel information. Although there are few hard surround effects, the rears are seldom silent. The lavish use of Foley effects—most notably chirping birds in outdoor scenes—also extends to the surrounds, which provide convincing envelopment. Neighbors might lack the show-off audio of today’s action thrillers but its sound quality is nearly as impressive.

Video performance deserves the same high praise. Sharp yet non-fatiguing, Neighbors’ great image detail manifests itself in hair, clothing textures, and surface imperfections. The wonderfully rendered gray scale encompasses subtle shadings from pure white to deep black, though anything less than a perfectly calibrated display will hide minute brightness gradations and excellent shadow detail that are captured in this excellent transfer. Thanks to the use of contrived lighting schemes—neon and outdoor illumination during the frat parties—Neighbors offers a rich palette of deep, saturated colors. Fleshtones are largely determined by these artificial lighting sequences, but, when naturally lit, facial close-ups occasionally betray a slightly reddish tint.

This Blu-ray offers a generous assortment of extras, but it’s clearly a case of quantity over quality. Of the eight deleted/alternate scenes, very few improve the viewers’ understanding of the film. The “Line-O-Rama” improvisational scene is silly, the gag reel singularly unfunny, while several making-of shorts seem to have no point other than to convince us this film is funnier than it is and that its stars actually like each other. The real bright spot here is the alternate opening, which, though improbable, is hilarious. Mostly. Neighbors delivers 97 minutes of mindless fun. Just don’t compare it to Animal House!

Blu-ray
Studio: Universal, 2014
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Audio Format: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Length: 97 mins.
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Nicholas Stoller
Starring: Seth Rogen, Zac Efron, Rose Byrne