Bad Neighbours, film review: Seth Rogen faces the nightmare next door

(15) Dir. Nicholas Stoller; Starring Seth Rogen, Zac Efron, 97mins

Growing pains: Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen star as husband and wife

Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne play new parents who have no sooner moved to a nice quiet suburb than a rowdy college fraternity headed by Zac Efron and Dave Franco moves in next door.

What begins with a simple noise complaint escalates beyond a neighbourly dispute into a war of attrition, the skirmishes of which involve lots of drugs, loud music, shirtlessness, dance-offs, fireworks, condoms, dildos, spy cameras, axes, airbags and bad impressions of Robert De Niro. There is a differently themed and off-the-hook party scene every 15 minutes or so.

Notionally, we're on the side of the grown-ups, but most of the comedy and what little pathos there is derives from the thirty-somethings' nostalgia for their recently lost youth. It's a frat comedy starring Seth Rogen, after all: immaturity is its keynote.

So there isn't a lot of generational conflict here, and if it didn't rely quite so heavily on bodily functions and gay panic for laughs, Bad Neighbours would be downright winsome.

Much like a college education wasted in favour of partying, it's fun while it lasts but gives you nothing at all to think about.