Neighbors (1981)

"Neighbors" is a loopy dark comedy, based on a novel by Thomas Berger. Although the screenplay is credited to Larry Gelbart, it was actually heavily re-written, and was a very troubled shoot. It stars 'Saturday Night Live' funnymen John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, in a classic case of role reversal. Here, Belushi is the straight man and Aykroyd the zany one. Belushi plays Earl Keese, a mild middle class individual living at the end of a suburban street. One night, the neighbors move in: pushy, obnoxious Vic (Aykroyd), and his extremely seductive wife Ramona (Cathy Moriarty, then hot off her memorable turn in "Raging Bull"). They introduce an element of excitement into Earls' mundane existence.In this viewers' own humble opinion, this wasn't a particularly funny movie. Moments of real wit and cleverness are not that frequent. Director John G. Avildsen ("Rocky", "The Karate Kid") just doesn't seem to have a feel for this sort of material. Occasionally, "Neighbors" is amusing, but the main thing that it has going for it are some deft performances. Aykroyd clearly has fun in his part, and Belushi shows a different side to his comedic talent by doing an impressive job here. Moriarty is devilishly entertaining. Kathryn Walker ("Slap Shot") is fine as Earls' wife, as is Lauren-Marie Taylor ("Friday the 13th Part 2") as his free-spirited daughter. There are also a few appearances by Belushi and Aykroyds' fellow 'SNL' alum Tim Kazurinsky.To be fair, there are some good lines, such as the one that motivates Earl to open his cellar door. I thought the scenes with Belushi and Moriarty were among the better ones. Bill Conti supplies a deliberately goofy music score.It's also rather sad watching this, knowing this was Belushis' last film.Five out of 10.

NEIGHBORS is directed by John G. Avildsen and based loosely on a novel by Thomas Berger. This will be John Belushi's last movie before his untimely death. And he gets to share the screen with Saturday Night Live pal Dan Aykroyd.Earl Keese(Belushi)lives a quiet, close to mundane life with his wife, Enid(Kathryn Walker)and their daughter, Elaine(Lauren-Marie Taylor). More or less happy. Earl's whole routine in his quiet and calm neighborhood is in for a major disruption when loud, obnoxious and freeloading Vic(Aykroyd)and his sexpot wife, Ramona(Cathy Moriarty)buy the house next door. Go ahead and accept it; there goes the neighborhood. The Keese family minding their p's and q's, while the suburb disintegrates before their very eyes. Ramona and Vic invite the neighbors over what turns out to be a bizarre dinner date straight from crazy town. Earl will be forced to scheme a way to get rid of the over-the-top couple. The movie lingers on and begins to peter-out! Belushi didn't seem to be 100% Belushi. Aykrod dyed-blonde? But Miss Moriarty made the best of her movie debut...Wow! Also in the cast: Igors Gavin and Dru-Ann Chuckran. A couple of great tunes were featured: "Hello, I Love You" by The Doors and "Stayin' Alive" by The Bee Gees.

Is it too soon to say I wish George Zimmerman lived on this city block? I guess so, since Georgie Boy wasn't even born when this movie came out.Neighbors is a movie I vaguely recall from my childhood. I might have seen it with my parents at a Drive-In as one of those double features. Back in 1981, I could've cared less what we were going to see, just the fact we were seeing something on the big screen.That said, probably, I would've been bored with this feature of battling neighbors as it was 100% adult humor, way over my 7-year-old head. The only thing that changed back then and now, is that now I get the humor but…I'm still bored.This movie was all over the place and was an obvious attempt to get Blues Brothers Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi back together again. Bad for us due to the rush, but good for them to green lit this speedily as Belushi wouldn't be with us much longer. (In fact, he would die roughly four months after this was released.)If the writer, Larry Gelbart, was going for an odd-couple type of movie pitting straight-laced vs. a bum, he was slightly off. Sure, Belushi and Aykroyd reversed Blues Brother roles here, with Belushi barely playing the straight man to Aykroyd's weirdo, but Belushi's Earl does such outrageous actions that, for the most part, doesn't even make any sense. At least Aykroyd's Vic is supposed to be psycho, giving him full range of craziness."Normal couple" Earl and Enid live in what seems to be the dead-end cul-de-sac of Nowhere, USA, and the 6-month vacant house next door is being occupied by a sex-crazed (but wonderful Cathy Moriarty) woman, Ramona and Vic who invite themselves into Earl's home. Well, that "self-invite into the home" is putting it mildly. Pretty soon, it's as if the foursome have known each other their entire lives. Or sadly, it feels like we've known them for far too long.It's hard not to put ourselves in the shoes of these characters, namely Earl, and see what we would do in the countless of scenes of weird behavior Vic and Ramona cause on their new neighbors. If you did that, like I did, you'll find practically every single decision Earl makes 100% opposite of what you'd do.Slap stick comedy is like that. Dark comedy, too. So, I guess you kinda have to give it to them, but that doesn't make the endless mess of a movie any better. Or any less painful to watch as the majority was.It's a 31-year-old movie that's long since forgotten and probably should stay that way. Even fans of Belushi would be disappointed. I know I was…well, except whenever his shirt was off.Side Note: I have an update! Today is Father's Day, and I asked him at dinner if he just HAPPENED to remember our family going to the drive-in 30 years ago and seeing Neighbors. Unbelievably, HE DID. I said I didn't think he liked it, and he said he didn't but we saw it because he liked the Saturday Night Live actors at the time "when it was funny." That was funny.

I suppose this movie is one of those that divides the world into two camps ... but my camp will kick the hell out of yours, assuming you're in the camp that dislikes this classic.First off, I knew this was a great movie when I mentioned having seen it and my older brother looked at me with his well-practiced disdain and said 'it was the stupidest movie he'd ever seen' ... well that sealed it for me ... i knew it was a classic then ...Many people were completely thrown off by the somewhat reversal of roles for Belushi and Akroyd ... i suppose Belushi's role really threw off some people who couldn't imagine him playing the latter day burned-out shell of a man made famous by Spencer Tracy in "guess who's coming to dinner' (the great speech in the end) ... he's a worn out man who hates his job, cringes coming home looking at the long-empty house next door, and the sparks firing off the high tension lines out back ... you can just feel his inside sink as they must every day pushed and packed down tight by the crushing weight of the job he must hate ...Belushi relays all of this in the space of twenty seconds right at the start of the movie ... you don't need to know one more bit of background on his character ... it is a perfect piece of acting ... perhaps the single most perfect in a career filled with Belushi's usually over-the-top physical comedy but as wild as most of his best known bits are, this is so mild but yet complete it fits perfectly at the near-end of his career ... my god, it's sad to see it and think of how much more he could have accomplished without those nasty habits getting out of hand ... (at least it inspired plenty of other fellow comedians to clean up their hand and survive to develop their careers ... robin Williams comes to mind) but Cathy Moriarty plays the femme fatale to perfection and with the sexually suppressed, frustrated, and nearly shriveled up Belushi as her target, they make a great pair on screen ...and of course the madness that builds and keeps going and makes Belushi look like the crazy one ... but, and here's the warning spoiler, he is and finally fits in and becomes happy :) this is where my brother just griped and whined about how dumb the ending was ...he burned his house down ... HE BURNED IT DOWN lmao ... there ya go ... he finally 'went sane' :) watching it again for the first time in decades, this movie still holds its edge to this day ... show it to the kids ... it's nothing they can't see these days ... a true comedic classic