Weekend Box Office: ‘Neighbors’ Defeats ‘Spider-Man’

Sometimes it’s the movie’s protagonists who are the bad eggs. Even if we’re meant to dislike the yuppies who live next to the Griswolds, we also can’t help but feel bad for them in situations where they’re being blinded by Christmas decorations, pelted by missile-like icicles shooting through their window, or getting attacked by squirrels (and the dogs attacking those squirrels).

This odd trio, who’ve just made Mayfield Place their new home, might be murderers. Even if they’re not, though, their house has poor curb appeal, and that will certainly bring prices down for the rest of the cul-de-sac. But, again, they’re probably murderers, and the suspicious guy next-door (Tom Hanks) is not having any of that. Of course, if the Klopeks are innocent, then it’s their pesky new neighbors who are the bad ones.

Before Seth Rogen and Zac Efron made their property lines the frontlines for war, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd had a similar conflict in a 1981 comedy that really isn’t all that comedic — a real disappointment for the duo after “The Blues Brothers.” Still, we can look to the movie for another nut (an Aryan-esque Aykroyd) whom we wouldn’t want to share a street with, let alone a property line. Some guys might not mind having the seductive Ramona (Cathy Moriarty) living next door, however. At least there’s that.

It doesn’t get much worse than living in the same building as a cannibal butcher who sells you human meat. Unless maybe he’s also your landlord. Jean-Claude Dreyfus plays this wicked man in Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro’s fantastical post-apocalyptic feature debut. At least the butcher has a nice daughter to adorably romance.

OK, maybe it can get worse, as in the situation of poor Rosemary (Mia Farrow), whose neighbors are Satanists. Not just the Castevets but many of the residents at the Dakota, where she lives. But the Castevets are the ringleaders, instrumental in getting Rosemary impregnated by the Devil and then later kidnapping the baby. If you’re a woman living next to them, the same thing might happen to you. If you’re a man, then you’ll still, at the very least, wind up seduced into their coven.

A lot of people consider Charlie (John Goodman) to be the Devil himself in this Coen brothers masterpiece, partly due to the way walls catch on fire around him near the end. He might just be a simple serial killer, though, which isn’t all that better a neighbor to have in the tight quarters of a mostly deserted hotel. Especially if he leaves you a box with what you presume to be a decapitated head inside.

A movie that surely instilled more fear in people after 9/11 than when it was released, “Arlington Road” poses the question of what you’d do if you were sure your new neighbors were terrorists. Coincidentally, maybe, the guy dealing with this recently moved-in family is an expert on terrorism, so he’s more likely to spot clues than the rest of us. If their arrival is intentional, then you’re actually better off not being in the know.

Mason Gamble, who is also one of the Langs in “Arlington Road,” plays the title character in the adaptation of Hank Ketcham’s famous comic strip, “Dennis the Menace.” And as his nickname implies, he is indeed a menace, especially to his neighbor Mr. Wilson (Walter Matthau). Most of the trouble with Dennis is not of his intention; he’s just sort of careless and prone to accidents that affect his next-door neighbor rather than himself. Could happen to the best of us.

Sid Phillips is a kid who likes to perform terrible (yet creative) experiments on dolls and action figures, including those he steals from the boy next door. But really, isn’t the whole Phillips family guilty of being bad neighbors, since Sid’s parents do nothing to curb their son’s rotten (and psychologically worrisome) behavior?

In his defense, it’s not totally his fault that he can hear through the very thin walls of his apartment building. Yet, by continually talking to Peter (Ron Livingston), from one living room to another, Lawrence (Diedrich Bader) proves that he’s still eavesdropping and that he’s not polite enough to pretend he isn’t listening or let you know he’s there. It’s like living next-door to a beer-guzzling, completely inept spy.