Ed's Review Dot Com

Chernin Entertainment, Feigco Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation,

Amy Schumer, Goldie Hawn, Joan Cusack, Ike Barinholtz, Wanda Sykes, Christopher Meloni, Tom Bateman, Randall Park, Óscar Jaenada

Emily Middleton (Amy Schumer) is a rather spoiled young lady with an upcoming rock star boy friend, who is set to take a vacation to Ecuador, when she is blind sided by a nasty breakup leaving her with two tickets and no one to go with. All her friends have turned her down. She decides to go home to her Mother Linda (Goldie Hawn) to ease her broken heart and to coerce her Mom to go with her on the trip for some bonding time. But no sooner than they arrive do the pair get kidnapped by some bad cartel guys and have to fight for their lives as things go horribly wrong all around them in this raucous comedy from 20th Century Fox.

Amy Schumer has pissed off a lot of people who are extremely unhappy with her uncalled for political rants. Like every other person on the planet, she is entitled to her opinion but some of her choices of late have hurt her credibility a LOT. I try to keep the work apart from the worker as much as I can, unless they try to infuse the political stance. If you choose to hate her (look at the ratings on Netfix if you want to see what I mean) and demean the film simply because you don’t like Amy, I can accept that. You might as well stop reading as I’m going to try to review the movie and not the person. So here goes. This movie is pretty funny. If you saw Trainwreck, Amy’s first movie, then there are reasons why people are calling this a sequel to that one, although it’s not. But it’s the same character, the deranged dysfunctional child/adult who seems to have no moral compass at all. Life keeps getting harder and harder as bad choices are made. It’s in the same vein as Superbad and the Hangover pictures that are raunchy and truly R rated which is well deserved. Be sure you’re ready for that before watching this. But Emily does have some real values underneath, and just doesn’t know how to present them. Like the Alice in Wonderland song from the Disney film, “I give myself good advice, but I seldom ever follow it.” This should be Emily’s theme. However, this movie is far better than Trainwreck because of the outstanding cast that is backing Amy up. Goldie Hawn (Poor Goldie, I still remember the bubbly little girl from Laugh-In and she’s not that anymore) is absolutely charming in this film. She’s been honing her comedic skills her whole life, but she got this Mom down perfectly. She’s naturally very much like her daughter, trying to do the sensible thing, but getting into trouble, although a lot more cautious than Emily, she still makes some strange choices which depicts the difficult life she lived (in the film) as well. Also there are some excellent additional characters that bring tons of color to the film in somewhat smaller roles. Ike Barinholtz from Mad TV plays Emily’s brother, an adult agoraphobic man who never leaves the house who is there mostly to drive Emily nuts. There is another lesbian pair who are staying at the resort and make friends with Linda played by Wanda Sykes and Joan Cusack that are very, very funny. Joan, playing a mute person, is exceptionally funny and provided many of the belly laughs. The captain of the “slow boat” Roger Simmons played by Christopher Simmons is also very funny, although he doesn’t last too long. Basically this is low brow humor that actually works, but makes you feel a little dirty afterward. All in all, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected, and if you can take the R rating without getting offended, then it’s a dang funny little movie.

Regular Trailer:

RED BAND (R Rated) TRAILER

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Good Universe, Point Grey Pictures,

Seth Rogen, Zac Efron, Rose Byrne, Dave Franco, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Lisa Kudrow, Craig Roberts, Ike Barinholtz, Jake Johnson, Hannibal Buress, Carla Gallo, Halston Sage

Mac (Seth Rogen) and Kelly Radner (Rose Byrne) are a newlywed couple with a daughter. They live in a simple suburban home. The house next door is up for sale, and they take a lot of interest to see who the new neighbors will be, but when the guys from the fraternity move in and turn it into a frat house led by fraternity president Teddy Sanders (Zac Efron), things go from bad to worse to worst. They party all night, with loud music that keep everyone awake. At first Mac and Kelly try to be friendly with the boys and try to party with them to make friends and get their cooperation, but when that fails, they start escalating a war with the frat that spirals WAY out of control.

This is a hilarious comedy reminiscent of the old great comedies of long ago. It’s modern and fresh, and unique twist, but the gags run from slapstick to up to date technology gags that are right out of the pages of today’s college kids. To make it even more enjoyable, I have a bit of a story to tell.

We went up for Mother’s Day to UC Santa Barbara. My daughter had to work for a while, so my wife and I went to the theater closest to the school to watch a movie. The timing was wrong for everything else, but Neighbors was coming on at 8:15, so we chose it. We figured a Seth Rogen film would be a few laughs. The theater ended up packed, every seat full, all 20ish college kids. We were the only old people in the theater. Since I work in the IT field, I am up to date on new technology and so I got the jokes. But the frat jokes in particular, especially with the way things are today with the latest web sites and communication devices was especially funny to the young people because they obviously got all the jokes. I imagined watching this back at home in a theater full of adults with many of the jokes just going over their heads. Not this crowd. It was really interesting to see which gags cracked them up and compare to what it would be like seeing this without the theater filled with students. Anyway, needless to say, unlike the teens we often see at home, with the theater packed, the crowd was very respectful, quiet with no one texting or making phone calls and laughing at the right places. Though we were crowded, it was a really enjoyable experience.

Now back to the film. This is the kind of role that fits Seth Rogen perfectly. He plays the kid who’s grown up now and realizing that he needs to take some responsibility, but dropping back into his youth to party with the frat and play childish pranks trying to outdo each other. New parents have the problem of their close friends from the past living a wild and free single lifestyle when they have a child and a job and too much to do. The frat house next door, though a curse, also is a chance to step back into their younger days. The comedy is really good, the jokes are non-stop, and it’s a randy adult comedy that doesn’t let up. I really enjoyed this film and recommend it for comedy fans everywhere.

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