Los vecinos

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.

Anyone familiar with John Belushi's work will remember him as rarely being reputed for his subtle acting style. While Aykroyd delivers his usual quality performance, for me, the brilliance of the film lies in Belushi's performance as a suburban loser. They say that outsiders are the best observers of any culture. Examples might be De Tocqueville's book Democracy in America or even Christian Bales's performance in American Psycho. In Neighbours, Belushi is no exception. He plays the suburban American loser better than the real thing! Consider his appearance, his sexual frustration, the way he automatically goes for the TV when he gets home, how he expects his wife to make dinner when he comes home from work... In fact, he's so devoted to this role that through the entire film he manages to invariably avoid slipping into the hysterical personality that made him famous. He is fantastic at satirizing everything that his lifestyle defies.

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.

In the times I have seen this movie(too many to count). I always find more to it.I enjoy this lost classic from the late great John Belushi more than so many over produced conventional movies and more than almost all of the SNL cast made movies.Belushi and Acroyd,a duo who didn't do enough together.

See this movie!

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.