Neighbors

This turd won't send many running to Thomas Berger's rich novel, which is a shame. The book is everything the film failed to be: a scathing satire on moronic American suburban life.

The problem is a director far out of his depth. Though armed with a script largely faithful to its subversive source material, director John Avildsen (Rocky, Karate Kid) is a maker of feel-good entertainment who hasn't a clue how to handle satire or absurdity. It's like asking John Ashcroft to rap.

While Belushi is serviceable and Akroyd is fun, we can only imagine how this last partnership might have turned out in competent hands. They're frequently misdirected by Avildsen who thinks he's doing Reagan-era Abbott and Costello. Painful; read the novel.

Leonerd Maltin's crazy. This movie was before it's time and had me puking. It's been on cable every day for the last few months and I've watched it every time. The ideas behind this movie are awesome. Watch this movie just for the swamp and the tow truck driver. May be Dan Ackroyd's best performance.

The people at Columbia must have thought this was a surefire winner when they saw the inital idea for this film; with a simple but potentially funny premise and two capable and talented stars, how could it miss?

Unfortunately it does and by a long way. The blame for this shouldn't be at Belushi and Aykroyd's feet as they do what they can with their limited roles; the blame should be with an unfunny and illogical script and very uninspired direction. As a result, there are only a couple of amusing moments in the film.

Two things underline what is wrong with this film. Firstly, the film's music score is atrocious (some earlier reviews disagree on this); it's so heavy-handed and obvious that it almost single-handedly ruins the comedy potential of the film's opening scenes. The film may have been better off without a music score at all.

Secondly, the character of Enid Keese is so poorly constructed that she negates to a large extent the laughs created by the three other main characters in the film; her character simply makes no sense. For example, when her daughter comes back and announces that she has been kicked out of school, while Earl is understandably upset by this Enid hardly seems bothered by it at all.

Belushi and Aykroyd team up for a dark comedy unlike any I've seen.

Earl (Belushi) is quietly living his life in the suburbs with his wife and daughter, but it takes a decided turn for the worse when a lunatic (Aykroyd) and his wife move in next door.

Earl's life is turned into a nonsensical nightmare by the new couple; Vic tells nonstop lies about everything including whether his 'home-made' spaghetti sauce came from a jar and if the spaghetti is from a non-existent Italian restaurant while his wife Ramona (Cathy Moriarty) alternately seduces and blackmails Earl. Particularly funny is the segment in which Earl tries to sneak out in the middle of the night for a rendezvous with Ramona, only to be caught by Vic, who is awake, on his rooftop, and wearing scuba gear.

I didn't really care for this movie the first time I saw it, because almost nothing made any sense. Now, it's one of the few movies I've purchased. I suppose it's an acquired taste, but don't give up too quickly on it. After all, Belushi isn't making any new ones, is he?

ps- Great musical score! No instruments lend themselves to bizarre going-ons quite as readily as a trombone and kazoo.

My memories of real youth, like from five to ten years old are completely blurred for the most part but for some reason I remember watching John Belushi movies. I remember going to see `Neighbors' and `Continental Divide' in the theater! I haven't really examined this but basically since I was born I have adored John Belushi. I remember renting `Neighbors' when the VCR was a new item and I'd watch it over and over again. I guess I was a pretty strange ten-year old. Memories of watching his movies, his death and whatever else are still with me in strange little flashes.

I find `Neighbors' to be his best work. This is a controversial opinion! I've recently reread Woodward's `Wired' and it seems John detested everything about this movie. He had sincere hatred for the director, Alvidsen- he continually asked to replace him. Yet, John's biggest concern for `Neighbors', again citing from Woodward's book, was the soundtrack. He wanted it to be punk rock and Holy Christ did it ever wind up the antithesis. Of course I would love to have seen `Neighbors' done the way John would have intended it but I still am very fond of this movie as is. I think Alvidsen did a great job of bottling all of John's manic energy and I think he summoned his best performance. It's such a strange contradiction that, again from reading `Wired', John wanted desperately to lose the `Bluto' stigma and prove he could be a versatile actor. This role reversal gave him that chance and yet he was against this film from the beginning.

I think `Neighbors' is fantastic. It's like `Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf' on acid or something. This film should be examined by future filmmakers as an example of how what seems like all the wrong ingredients can make a positive and an unforgettable piece of cinema in the end.