Angry Neighbors

I loved this movie. I recently saw another movie about an elderly curmudgeon "A Man Called Otto" with Tom Hanks. I stopped watching it after 20 minutes. It didn't ring true for me. Frank Langella's curmudgeon did. I laughed all the way through this movie. I suspect a person would need to be an elderly disaffected crank themselves to fully appreciate this film. I qualify. As of this writing, I am 8 months away from being 70 years old. I identified greatly with Mr. Langella's character. So unhappy with the changes in the world. Thank goodness, I am not as bitter or as angry as he. I felt sorry for his loneliness and isolation. I have been a fan of Mr. Langella since 1970, the year he starred in "Diary of a Mad Housewfe" and Mel Brook's "The Twelve Chairs". These two movies really showcased his talent and versatility. At 84 or 85 he won't be with us too much longer. He is still amazing. And I've been a fan of Stockard Channing since her 1973 TV movie with Ed Asner "The Girl Most Likely to..." I don't know how to describe Ms. Channing appeal. I have simply always felt it. Especially loved her in "Grease".

As I said in the heading, this movie is not for everyone. But, I would bet that most elderly, intellectually inclined men would enjoy it. "The Vanity of Human Wishes". I love it. And I loved this movie. I would have rated it an 8, but I wanted to counter the low ratings of reviewers who didn't get it.

I'm not sure this even counts as a movie. It seems more like someone fed boomer prompts into an AI chat bot and it spit out this whole movie. Like not even the script but the entire movie itself was just created and made inside the machine then pushed out slowly.

Nothing is funny or interesting. There's a talking dog for some reason that adds nothing, and is voiced by Cheech. The human can hear the dogs thoughts but for some reason has to reply to the dog audibly with dialogue. This is never addressed or explained.

The jokes are also not funny. Half the time there don't even seem to be any happening anyway - but the ones that are there are the most typical and dated old people comedy you can imagine. "I don't like loud things" is about 1/4 of the punch lines so if you chuckled at that - this may be the movie for you...

I actually BOUGHT this stinkeroo. Mostly for Mr. Langella, who pulled off a great job despite an absolutely abysmal script. Sadly, it had such promise that I watched from beginning to end, so I have twice earned the right to declare... this movie SUCKS!!!

Worst. Story. Ever.

In fact, I don't think this film presented a story. Or a point. Or anything funny at all.

Anyway, this one is about a guy with a talking dog who might be pissed off at his neighbor, who you will never see, while a woman sometimes swims nude without being nude outside his "island" home. All for various unexplained reasons. That's about it. PEE-YEW!

It's a beautiful flop though, which means the crew is awesome. I already said the players are awesome. So, this can only be a failure of artistic vision and leadership! Top rot!

Sheesh! How do you go wrong with Frank Langella????

PS - Mr. Langella, I hope you were well paid, sir. We don't blame you!

I think this was some sort of elitist attempt at self deprecating humor? That is my best guess , but I could be wrong. From the very first sentence of the movie it wasn't funny and simply bad. It only snowballed downhill from here. The acting is poor and just about every scene or chapter is at best distasteful and at its worst downright crude.

Out of the 150 movies I've reviewed on IMDB not a single one was this bad. Some movies have bad acting that damages the overall film quality but this would score a 0 in every possible way to one could rate a movie. It is a shame that reviewers are obligated to even give it a one star.

Highly recommend not viewing this to save time you will not get back in your life.

Angry Neighbors is one of the most clueless adaptations I've seen in a while, a desperate attempt to make a commercial feature out of something that was more think-piece oriented than plot driven.

In more skillful hands, it might have worked. But the screenplay, by yes, three writers spiraling in Rewrite City, couldn't figure anything that nuanced out. The result is to adapt a metaphorical source literally, close their eyes and just hope it makes sense.

It's one thing to have a talking dog as a projected narrative voice in a book, another to have the dog actually talk. Cheech Marin voice might eventually drive you to turn this off early. Thank him for that.

Angry neighbors does manage one achievement... it makes John Avildsen's butchery of Thomas Berger's Neighbors seem harmless by comparison.