“She only sees shapes,” assures Kelly; “Shapes fucking each other!” Mac replies.

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Frankly, Seth Rogen’s raw-yet-hilarious comedies always hit my nerve and successfully entertain me with content derision. At least, such wacky formulas work for me in Pineapple Express and last year’s This Is The End or in a more sentimental Knocked Up or Zack and Miri Make a Porno; judging from such portfolio, I’m confident to equate Rogen to “fresh” in this heyday of ass-witted comedy. This summer, Rogen returns with his co-producers of Pineapple Express to make a naughty “neighbor war” comedy in collaboration with Nicholas Stoller (director of The Five-Year Engagement and Forgetting Sarah Marshall) in the story of the big, bad Neighbors.

In Neighbors, Rogen is Mac Radner, a husband to Kelly (Rose Byrne) and a father to baby Stella. The young couple does find out what misery is when a fraternity called Delta Psi—led by Teddy (Zac Efron) and co-led by Pete (Dave Franco)—move the next house. The couple does something naughty and their frat neighbors responds with jeers and sneers, vice versa. Since then, the chortling-moment siren wails with uproars.

To be certain, almost all humors in Neighbors comes along the neighborhood conflicts—mostly ones involving the age-gap sets that works exuberantly. Director Nicholas Stoller sets the story in flash mode; the pacing is tight and quick—quick enough to laugh more even when the last “ROFL” moment hasn’t faded. Some humor-sets might not be a hundred-percent original; but who can’t help laughing with the dubbing Batman scene or Robert De Niro costume party scene? Even if you think those scenes are not funny (probably you don’t understand what they refer to), other scenes are as ridiculous as you expect from any Judd Apatow’s films.

Well, if you think that confronting Rogen—with amazing ad-lib talent, and Efron—with enough abs to sedate dozens of fangirl, doesn’t make sense? You’ll probably wrong or right at once. Their performance is, indeed, absurd and unpredictable… in a good sense. Rogen’s with high-hope of silliness is funny, but who would believe that Efron does a good humor? No one, till the preposterous neighbor war rises. Efron’s got a thing in Neighbors; not only he’s having good chemistry with his bromance vice-president portrayed by Franco, but he’s got the whole Delta Psi (including Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Submarine‘s Craig Roberts) to spell out his comedy persona. Even if the story is finally predictable, ‘bawdy’ performances from its cross-matched actors are fresh and kicking ass.

One thing you need to know (or not) about Neighbors is: it’s an R-rated comedy and you don’t expect nothing but over-the-top adult jokes (slapstick or sex, you name it). Even if you think the whole film is rotten or having no resolution, you can still laugh with this angry neighbors.

Neighbors (2014)

Comedy Running Time: 97 mins Directed by: Nicholas Stoller Written by: Andrew J. Cohen, Brendan O’Brien Starred by: Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne, Zac Efron, Dave Franco, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Craig Roberts Rated R Stills and references: IMDb | Official Site