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.

This movie is a bit sleepy, but there are many good things to keep the last role of John Belushi entertaining. First of all, Kathryn Walker was great as the wife who was completely bored with her life. Her role was very convincing. She seemed to know her husband and be tired of his contained personality. Belushi usually played crazy people, but in this role and Continental Divide Belushi plays relatively down-to-Earth roles. Belushi was a totally conservative, conformist, who couldn't even complain about the high power electrical wires right outside his home.

In come his new, strange neighbors who quickly turn his life upside down. Like many films with this theme, the one whose life is turned upside down by his crazy neighbors soon finds out that the real problem is not his neighbor, but his boring life. I remember when this movie came out, but I hadn't seen it until today. The critics really slammed this movie at the time. One thing I think the movie critics missed was how brilliantly this movie satirized suburban doldrums. At the very end of the movie, Belushi's character is watching an advertisement on television about a funeral home. Belushi was only in his early thirties at the time, but was overweight. His character, I believe, was supposed to be about ten years older. The advertisement on television is one of the best scenes (and the person speaking is obviously Dan Akroyd in the commercial). His life is over, and all that is left in his boring existence is preparing for his mortality.

Earl (John Belushi) and Enid (Kathryn Walker) are a middle-aged couple who have a boring existence in a big house in the middle of nowhere. Then Vic (Dan Aykroyd) and Ramona (Cathy Moriarty) move in next door...and life becomes a nightmare for Vic.

This is one strange one. Hard to believe a major studio green lighted this at all. However Belushi and Aykroyd were at the height of their popularity when this came out so they probably were able to do anything they wanted. This is a pitch black comedy AND very surreal at the same time. I wouldn't call it funny (I think I laughed once) but you can't stop watching. Logic goes out the window in this movie when Vic and Ramona show up so you're never sure what's going to happen next. It does have a point (sort of) but this isn't for a mass audience. It helps that all the actors are just great. Aykroyd and Belushi purportedly switched roles before the film started shooting...and it worked beautifully. They were both cast against type and pulled it off. Moriarty is incredibly sexy and one hell of an actress. Walker throws off comic lines left and right and somehow fits right in with Ramona and Vic. Bill Conti's score is incredible. It's a strange one all right but it fits the movie like a glove.

This was (for some stupid reason) released around Christmas time. People expected to see a typical silly comedy and that's not what they got. Director John Avildsen hated this too--he complained Belushi and Aykroyd were constantly rewriting the script. Most critics savaged the film (very few understood it) and it was a bomb. Sadly it was Belushi's last movie too. This is a very strange comedy but I really love it. Definitely worth catching if you're looking for something offbeat. An 8.