Neighbors, the raunchy comedy that features Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne playing a married couple who go to “war” with the fraternity next door (led by an especially sculpted Zac Efron), is one of the rare non-effects heavy box office success stories of the 2014 Summer Movie Season thus far, having already taken in over $220 million worldwide on a $18 million budget. So, no shock, a sequel is already being discussed – the question, as always, is whether or not that’s also a great idea, from a creative perspective.
For clarification, Neighbors 2 is nowhere near to being officially green-lit right now. Rogen and his writing/producing Evan Goldberg (who produced, but did not pen Neighbors) have – as reported by Deadline – admitted to “taking a lot of meetings” to discuss the topic of a prospective Neighbors sequel – nothing more or less.
If the project does happen, it for sure won’t be Rogen’s next film. He is currently busy lending his voice to the R-Rated animated comedy Sausage Party (which he and Goldberg co-wrote), in addition to preparing to reunite with his 50/50 director Jonathan Levine and costar Joseph Gordon-Levitt, on a new Christmas-based project set to release in 2015. Not to mention, if things work out, then Neighbors director Nicholas Stoller will soon be working alongside Rogen and Kevin Hart on the period buddy cop flick, Jazz Cops.
Thing is, while Neighbors is a financial success story and has been generally favorably received by critics (read our review), Stoller and his writers didn’t exactly leave any plot threads dangling or character arcs unfinished. However effective (or not effective) one may’ve felt the film was at examining the mentality of adults who’re neurotic about leaving their youth behind – juxtaposing that story with the tale of college-age students facing their uncertain future – by the end, the job was all done.
Neighbors certainly has its fair share of memorable funny moments – as discussed on the Neighbors installment of the Screen Rant Underground Podcast, the “milking” scene is bound to remain infamous for years to come. However, just like the film’s story seems fine as is, there doesn’t seem a whole lot more in the way of jokes to be drawn from this particular concept. More often than not, it just tends to be best to let comedies like this stand alone (something like 22 Jump Street being the exception that proves the rule).
Anway, we’ve tossed in our two cents – how about you? Neighbors 2, yay or nay?
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Neighbors is now playing in theaters.
