NEIGHBORS (Rated R)

The plot of “Neighbors” is succinctly stated in the tag line of the film’s billboard advertising. Simply put, “Family vs. Frat” sums it up nicely, with generational conflict spawned when a rowdy fraternity house takes up residence in a peaceful neighborhood.

Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne are young adult professionals Mac and Kelly Radner with a cute newborn baby. Mortgaged to the hilt, they buy a dream house in a leafy suburban community.

The transition to mature adulthood with the attendant responsibilities of creating a nice family life is challenging. Spontaneity in their sex life and desire to party is inhibited by the ever-watchful smiling baby (one of the cutest infants in memory).

When the large house next door goes up for sale, the Radners are hopeful for friendly new residents. Instead, they get the neighbors from hell when the Delta Psi Beta fraternity moves in with the sole mission of designing party central complete with all-night drinking bouts.

The vacuous, party-boy frat president Teddy (Zac Efron), apparently aimless in his scholastic career, has the single-minded goal of putting his class into the annals of frat history with the most epic party ever held.

At first, Mac and Kelly, rightly concerned about the presence of party animals, don’t want to appear to be “uncool” old fogies, so they join a frat party one night and indulge too much in some hallucinogenic activities.

Of course, trying to fit in with the adolescent college types is not really a wise move, and Mac and Kelly quickly realize that, though they are far from being old, they are not going to recapture the wild abandon of their not-so-distant partying days.

As a result, an understanding is reached with Teddy that he’ll tone down the frat’s activities if their parties become too loud and raucous. All that Mac and Kelly need to do is call with a request to “keep it down.”

The inevitable sleepless night of coping with too much loud music from the neighbors soon arrives, and multiple calls to Teddy go unheeded. The only choice for Mac and Kelly is to report the rowdy party to the police for what turns out not to be an anonymous tip.

At this point, Teddy expresses his disappointment that Mac and Kelly went nuclear, and backed up by his wingman Pete (Dave Franco) and the entire fraternity, including a group of humiliated pledges, he decides to launch all-out war on the family next door.

The young couple takes their concerns about the fraternity to the college dean (Lisa Kudrow), who seems worried only about newspaper headlines that would shame the school. Still, they discover that Delta Psi Beta is already on probation and facing possible disbandment.

Some strategic thinking goes into a plot to turn the frat house into an unsustainable financial burden so that the boys would be forced to sell and relocate. Flooding the frat house basement is a good start.

And yet, the frat boys prove to be ingenious by raising money on campus by selling to willing, adoring female students sex toys that have been molded by using the frat members as models. The actual production of such tools is just one of the weirdly funny scenes.

Indeed, if the above is not sufficient warning, filmgoers should be aware that there are crude penis jokes, and not surprisingly, much like a Judd Apatow movie, lewd and salacious humor drives much of the comedic action.

The ongoing escalation of war between the neighbors is unavoidable. Even the frat’s Robert De Niro costume party offers many taunts to the Radners, with Teddy doing an impression of an unhinged Travis Bickle from “Taxi Driver” as an awkward method of intimidation.

Director Nicholas Stoller (“Get Him to the Greek” and “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”) has an Apatow-like taste for scandalous idiocy, but also taps into some resourceful ingenuity. The clever use of pilfered air bags from the Radner station wagon is a prime example.   

A frequently shirtless Zac Efron shows off his chiseled torso, but the best comic use of his physique comes near the end during his summer job as an outdoor model for Abercrombie & Fitch, where he’s hilariously upstaged when the flabby Seth Rogen decides to go shirtless as well in an impromptu competition.

“Neighbors” is crude, profane, rude and even scatological in its humor, which is what one would expect in a movie that stirs memories of “Animal House” and “Old School.” Still, there’s a measure of sweet sentimentality that mutes the otherwise dark edges of comedy.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.