Randy Quaid could most likely play the part of an obnoxious neighbor in his sleep. It is interesting however, to see the usually smarmy James Woods playing a meek college professor. What starts out as Quaid's sprinkler soaking Wood's azaleas, eventually escalates to macho competitions, and finally gets nasty with a dog killing, attempted rape, and a completely unhinged Randy Quaid. Make no mistake, "Next Door" is not a "black comedy", because it is so mean spirited. What it really is, is two abrasive actors, playing two abrasive characters. Both wives, Kate Capshaw and Lucinda Jenny, more or less simply blend into the background, while Quaid and Woods do battle. - MERK
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caspian197823 June 2004Next Door starts out like an after school family special. The direction and the introduction to the actors are comical and pleasant. As th movie progresses, the comedy becomes a drama when neighbors begin to fight. From petty arguments to life mattering issues, Next Door quickly turns into a modern day horror movie where your simple neighbor can be the cause of death and destruction. Both Quaid and Woods are terrific. Both actors could have played either one of their roles. Both are funny and at times scary. From broken patio furniture, a murdered dog, fighting kids, and then a possible rape, the movie moves close to death of one of the neighbors, which all began because somebody was watering their lawn with too much water. A great film about your typical suburbs with feuding neighbors.
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jimsnider-8919210 December 2021I'm trying to figure out why, as of this writing, this film only has five other reviews. Especially since it was released 27 years ago. Regardless of the lack of reviews, this film is much better than the lack of attention or the content of the existing reviews would seem to indicate.
The movie starts off innocently enough with a minor dispute between suburbia neighbors over property issues. Having lived in the suburbs and worked in law enforcement, I have seen many real life cases of friction among neighbors. However, it doesn't take long for a rather small seemingly mundane disagreement between next door neighbors in an idyllic community to spiral ridiculously out of control.
Randy Quaid (Lenny) plays a brooding middle class butcher who walks through life with a chip on his shoulder. Lenny is a twisted combination of a tiny bit of "Cousin Eddie" with a much larger percentage of Max Cady (De Niro's character in Cape Fear).
James Woods plays Matt Coler, an upper middle class college professor living next door to Lenny. Because of Lenny's dark and antagonistic nature, he begins the fued by consistently dousing the Coler's flowers. Matt retaliates by spraying down Lenny's outdoor lawn furniture cushions. A few exchanges of childish pranks between the two men transpires, but the pranks quickly turns to much more alarming, and illegal behavior when Lenny breaks into the Coler house and physically assaults Matt after he calls the police on Matt when the Coler family dog turns up killed on their front lawn.
Before it's over, Lenny seems to try to sexually assaults Matt's wife in their home. However, she doesn't report it because the police have been less than helpful in resolving the growing battle between neighbors. One morning Matt accidentally opens Lenny's mail and discovers Lenny has been laid off from the butcher shop. When Matt goes to Lenny's work to confront him for the incident with his wife, he humiliates Lenny in front of his coworkers by giving him the notice he's been fired. That night Lenny and his wife get into an argument and she kicks Lenny out, but not before he hits her.
Lenny breaks into the Coler home yet again and holds the family hostage as he emotionally and physically torments them. A vicious fight takes place where Lenny tries to burn Matt on his gas cook stove. Matt douses him with cooking spray igniting him and sending him to the front yard where he extinguishes himself in the puddles his sprinkler left in the Coler's front lawn.
By that time the police have been notified and are on scene when Lenny bursts through the front door doing his best Richard Pryor (look it up) impersonation. Lenny is told he's gone too far by Matt and presumably hauled off to the burn ward and then likely to jail. The film leaves this open though and wraps up with the boys from each family playing together.
This is a solid film with a relatively believable plot. As I said, neighborhood disputes have certainly turned violent and this movie gives the audience an inside look at how they can escalate. The acting by Woods and Quaid is very believable and entertaining. You're able to get sucked into the fight and find yourself questioning if both men are truly going to snap and hurt one another.
The supporting cast is quite believable as well. Although one would hope the wives would step in and try to put a stop to the war before it gets to the point it did. However, that would have made for a shorter, less intriguing story.
All-in-all, this is a good movie. Not great, and it's far from a classic, but it's a good solid way to entertain yourself for a bit. It's far better than what others here are giving it credit for. -
rbrb12 April 2003This 1994 movie has the makings of a good film; its not a tale of feuding neighbors, more about the bully next door, whom we hope as viewers and as the story unfolds will sooner or later get his 'reward'. I enjoyed the picture and my main quibble is it cannot be described in any way as a 'comedy' and even 'black comedy' would be stretching it.If my neighbor attacked me violently, poisoned the family dog or attempted to rape my spouse.... how can that be said in any way to be funny?! One significant feature of the film was how the police often fail to act with violent neighbors, and such unjustified non-action has the ring of truth about it. A good cast were hampered by the film makers failing to realize that this movie deserved to be pure drama.
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Guy14310 May 1999What would you do if your neighbor was killing your flowers with too much water? James Woods takes justice into his own hands when Randy Quaid won't turn his water off because he's killing his flowers. Woods takes it upon himself by stepping into Quaid's yard to turn his water off causing a war between the two families. Kate Capshaw & Lucinda Jenney are the wives that seem to have the only sense of ending the war. I just don't like seeing the tough and mean James Woods character taking hits from Randy Quaid.
The main reason I disliked the movie is everything Randy Quaid did would come back and hit James Woods in the face. Like Woods would hose down his lawn with water and then Quaid would fill up his car with water. So when Woods learns his lesson and wants to stop the feud, Quaid acts like nothing ever happened. And where is the police in all this? They never show up until the end and then they think their all psycho fighting over something childish. It had its moments and maybe if the silly background music didn't exist, it might of been good. Showtime Pictures has its moments too. Sometimes they can release a great movie and next its a dud. -
budbe25 September 2001This ranks right up there among the four or five WORST movies I've ever seen.
How they talked good people like Quaid, Woods and Capshaw into this appalling script I cannot imagine.
If it was supposed to be a 'dark comedy' there should have been even one good laugh in there somewhere.
On the other hand, if it was supposed to be a psychological drama, some effort might have been made to have even one character behave in ways we might see as remotely believable.
For me, the worst thing about this stinker was the fact that the story line (nice couple is cursed with neighbors from hell) is banal....most of us have had neighbors from hell, and, as Peewee Herman once said "I don't need to watch it Dottie, I LIVED it".