Cinema: Two Stooges

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NEIGHBORS Directed by John G. Avildsen Screenplay by Larry Gelbart

Among the gifts from Hollywood this past Christmas were lavishly illustrated coffee-table movies, self-exploding toy soldiers and inspirational samplers. Neighbors, at least and at most, is different: a 95-minute act of aggravated assault on the moviegoer (battery included).

Thomas Berger's novel was a suburban Walpurgisnacht, in which a sedentary couple are driven beyond distraction by the bizarre boorishness of the folks next door. For this to work in the movies it must be played either with the film equivalent of Berger's fastidious prose—Ordinary People in apocalyptic dead pan—or with the cauterizing fury of a Bunuel satire. A ham-fisted director like John G. Avildsen (Rocky) need not have applied. Nor were Bill Conti's services required: his score sounds like a Spike Jones symphony of klaxons, sassy trombones, Bronx-cheer kazoos and the Hallelujah Chorus. John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd maneuver through this minefield on literal flat feet, turning the Blues Brothers into the Two Stooges. Go back to Saturday Night Live, guys. The show could use you. And right now, you need it. —R.C.