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NEIGHBORS (1981)
Director: John G. Avildsen
Looking at my blank screen yesterday evening, I decided to rummage through my old Betamax videocassette collection, where I came across "Neighbors", a film I have seen at least 4 times previous, over the last 30 years.
It's one of those movies I wasn't sure of. I remember always feeling some despair and unease whenever I watched it. I also remember feeling as if it was a bit of a great comedy that was over looked and dismissed as being a failure.
I can now confirm that it's all of those things.
John Belushi, playing against type, is a square and conservative suburbanite complaced in a dead end marriage, ready to collapse into his tv set, when out of the blue comes a new force in his life, played by a manic Dan Aykroyd, as his new menacing, yet somehow intriguing, next door neighbor.
After being come on to by his new neighbor's wife and continuously harrassed by their overbearing headgames, a night of backyard adventure ensues and strange things start to happen.
This is a weird ass movie, first of all. It makes zero sense. There is no logic to speak of. No one is consistent with any of their actions, motivations are scribbled down and tossed away, and the tone is something of an old cartoon mixed with a poor attempt at camp humor, with constant send ups to pop culture references hidden in a soundtrack that invades the space this movie occupies in an obnoxious manner.
I didn't mind very much, though. There were several moments where the comedy mis-fired with a loud thud and some of the choices the director made were very stupid (like playing Bee Gees while Belushi powders his chest and flosses his teeth in a segment that should have never happened to act as a time barrier), but aside from a few noisy plops, "Neighbors" is a fun time at the movies.
I thank Dan Aykroyd for that.
He took the writing and made it fit perfectly with his character. He comes across intimidating in one breath, and in the next, a complete jerk who couldn't hurt a fly. It's a schizophrenic mess of a movie, but that's what adds to the charm. Whether or not this was all an accident in the editing room, I do not know, nor does it matter. I suspect it was true to the tone of the book written by Thomas Berger, though I confess to not having read it.
Belushi does his best work here.
He plays the straight guy more than fine, and even turns in a few moments of dramatic acting, if only for a brief transitory moment with his facial expressions. I wish he had kept going. I wish he were still alive today. He would have won many awards, I'm sure of it. He had that despairity every good dramatic actor needs to be an everyman with depth.
I also enjoyed the location, and the fact that 70% of the film was shot at night. The interiors were old wood grain paneled badness, but that tackiness also lended a certain warm feeling of being home, in a finished rec room downstairs, a bare bones shower room in the root cellar, and a living room of frayed fabric couch and chairs with cloth doilies on the end tables.
Outside at night was the most fun. It was like hanging out on a Summer evening, never knowing what would happen next, messing around the back yard where the toxic swamp lived, where the weeds recessed with pressure and stood back up erect with every passing footstep. A grown man sneaking around on his front lawn, looking for companionship and finding a mentally maladjusted neighbor offering his company, and his dirty coffee cup.
There's rarely a dull moment in this movie, which is strange to realize in retrospect because it moves along at a snail's pace. I could see how some people would find it dreary and dull. I can also see how people would not find any of it funny, for the obvious mistakes that were made in production that have nowhere to hide in the finished film. However, to me, it's easily forgiven. It was John Belushi's last film, and it was his best performance. I think I can say the same for Aykroyd's performance. This is a completely batshitt movie, but it deserves its audience.
Director: John G. Avildsen
Looking at my blank screen yesterday evening, I decided to rummage through my old Betamax videocassette collection, where I came across "Neighbors", a film I have seen at least 4 times previous, over the last 30 years.
It's one of those movies I wasn't sure of. I remember always feeling some despair and unease whenever I watched it. I also remember feeling as if it was a bit of a great comedy that was over looked and dismissed as being a failure.
I can now confirm that it's all of those things.
John Belushi, playing against type, is a square and conservative suburbanite complaced in a dead end marriage, ready to collapse into his tv set, when out of the blue comes a new force in his life, played by a manic Dan Aykroyd, as his new menacing, yet somehow intriguing, next door neighbor.
After being come on to by his new neighbor's wife and continuously harrassed by their overbearing headgames, a night of backyard adventure ensues and strange things start to happen.
This is a weird ass movie, first of all. It makes zero sense. There is no logic to speak of. No one is consistent with any of their actions, motivations are scribbled down and tossed away, and the tone is something of an old cartoon mixed with a poor attempt at camp humor, with constant send ups to pop culture references hidden in a soundtrack that invades the space this movie occupies in an obnoxious manner.
I didn't mind very much, though. There were several moments where the comedy mis-fired with a loud thud and some of the choices the director made were very stupid (like playing Bee Gees while Belushi powders his chest and flosses his teeth in a segment that should have never happened to act as a time barrier), but aside from a few noisy plops, "Neighbors" is a fun time at the movies.
I thank Dan Aykroyd for that.
He took the writing and made it fit perfectly with his character. He comes across intimidating in one breath, and in the next, a complete jerk who couldn't hurt a fly. It's a schizophrenic mess of a movie, but that's what adds to the charm. Whether or not this was all an accident in the editing room, I do not know, nor does it matter. I suspect it was true to the tone of the book written by Thomas Berger, though I confess to not having read it.
Belushi does his best work here.
He plays the straight guy more than fine, and even turns in a few moments of dramatic acting, if only for a brief transitory moment with his facial expressions. I wish he had kept going. I wish he were still alive today. He would have won many awards, I'm sure of it. He had that despairity every good dramatic actor needs to be an everyman with depth.
I also enjoyed the location, and the fact that 70% of the film was shot at night. The interiors were old wood grain paneled badness, but that tackiness also lended a certain warm feeling of being home, in a finished rec room downstairs, a bare bones shower room in the root cellar, and a living room of frayed fabric couch and chairs with cloth doilies on the end tables.
Outside at night was the most fun. It was like hanging out on a Summer evening, never knowing what would happen next, messing around the back yard where the toxic swamp lived, where the weeds recessed with pressure and stood back up erect with every passing footstep. A grown man sneaking around on his front lawn, looking for companionship and finding a mentally maladjusted neighbor offering his company, and his dirty coffee cup.
There's rarely a dull moment in this movie, which is strange to realize in retrospect because it moves along at a snail's pace. I could see how some people would find it dreary and dull. I can also see how people would not find any of it funny, for the obvious mistakes that were made in production that have nowhere to hide in the finished film. However, to me, it's easily forgiven. It was John Belushi's last film, and it was his best performance. I think I can say the same for Aykroyd's performance. This is a completely batshitt movie, but it deserves its audience.