'Bad Neighbours 2' (or 'Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising' in America) is a straightforward comedy sequel - all that's changed is the frat next door is replaced with a sorority (one of the funnier scenes involves how to spell "sorority"!). Mac (Rogen) & Kelly (Byrne) are back - as are the cute twins who play their daughter, now two years older - and still at it (literally in the opening scene). Shelby (Moretz) plays the leader of the new sorority moving in next door, but they do take some time to build her character, along with Beth (Clemons) and Nora (Feldstein) and make them non-stereotypical teenage girls - for the most part.There's a fair bit that doesn't work: still heaps of pot, most of it unnecessary, with Rogen must have written into his contracts or he won't appear, the predictable ending, annoying party/crap music scene(s) and some swearing/jokes that don't hit the mark. However, the majority of jokes - and pranks - are funny and do work.There's some feminism and pro-gay sentiment in there - and one great/terrible Jewish joke - but it's not sentimental or anything. Never going to blow minds or be a game-changer, but a decent way to spend 90min. And plenty of shirtless Efron or the ladies!

NEIGHBORS was a fun movie. It told it's story about a couple of new parents who are struggling to accept adulthood battling a legion of college frat members as led by a young man who was rapidly approaching his own moment where he'd have to learn to become an adult as his graduation looms. It's all about both sides inability to let go of carefree youth and accept their responsibilities, focusing their energies on an escalating prank war against each other instead. It made its point. It was funny. It ended. That should have been it. For some reason, it was followed by NEIGHBORS 2 (originally with the subtitle SORORITY RISING, but that seems to have since been dropped). We check back in on Mac (Seth Rogen) and Kelly (Rose Byrne) Radner who are about to have their second child and they're preparing to sell the home they bought (and fought for) in NEIGHBORS to upgrade to a larger home. They've got an interested buyer and all they have to do is get through 30 days of escrow and the deal is done. Unfortunately for them, a group of outcasts from the local college have decided to rebel against college regulations that prevent sororities from throwing parties. These three girls, led by Shelby (Chloë Grace Moretz), found their own sorority, Kappa Nu, in the house next door to the Radners and the battle starts all over again. It's round two of the battle of the young versus the not-quite-as-young (late 30's?).Comedy sequels are a tricky business because you don't want it to come across as a cash grab. It's real easy for a studio to see a comedy do better than expected and immediately dump money into a sequel that rehashes all the jokes and plot devices from the first film. I'm looking at you, HANGOVER II. The second NEIGHBORS movie actually tries to add something new to the series. I appreciated how one of the first things director Nicholas Stoller addressed in the film's commentary (yes, I listened) was the fact that comedy sequels are generally a bad idea because comedies are premise-based and it makes additional movies tough since you're sort of stuck adhering to the premise that was so popular. So he was aware he'd have to keep the age gap prank war gimmick but he found a way to mix it up, making the adversary a sorority. I'm not saying "It's different because they're girls this time"; it's because the sorority is a bit more sympathetic. The battle isn't against cocky frat guys whose pride won't let them give the Radners peace. It's against a trio of girls who are a bit awkward and were having a rough go at college before they came together and were determined to buck the system and have the first sorority that can throw its own parties instead of forcing them to attend frat parties. They just want equal privileges, and they're not fighting for spite but for survival.Does it make a huge difference? Big enough, I guess. NEIGHBORS 2 still retreads a lot of the same ground as the first film. The motivations have changed but the execution is the same. The movie even brings back the Radners' former nemesis Teddy (Zac Efron), originally as an adviser to the sorority seeking revenge for his frat before jumping ship to team with the Radners against this new threat. I said it for NEIGHBORS and I'll say it again: Zac Efron is a funny dude. He's one of the best parts of these NEIGHBORS movies. Rogen and Byrne are great in their own right but, just as with the first movie a bit, some of their lines (improv?) seemed forced and disingenuous. Efron's delivery and performance is more natural; I genuinely buy him as a muscle-bound halfwit who only knows a life of partying and sincerely wishes his life held some sort of value. The girls in the sorority do a pretty good job but I found it harder to believe their dip into utter villainy by the end (in part because they were so sympathetic). When Shelby and her friends start chucking tampons at the Radners' house, it feels too extreme for them because I don't think the movie established them as insane as the fraternity from the first film. Regardless, it all works well enough that NEIGHBORS 2 will entertain anyone who liked the first movie. It's pretty harmless. We didn't need it. We got it anyway, it's way better than it could've been, but it's not quite funny/different enough to have warranted its existence in the first place.

Mac (Seth Rogen) and Kelly Radner (Rose Byrne) are slowly moving into adulthood. Another baby is coming and they've sold their house. They're in escrow for 30 days desperate for smooth sailing. Suddenly, a bunch of girls led by Shelby (Chloë Grace Moretz) move in next door to start a sorority with the help of Teddy Sanders (Zac Efron). Teddy is struck in his life and homeless. The girls are dismayed that only frats can throw parties. They hate the rapey frat parties, the intrusive RA, and hope to throw their own fun parties. Mac and Kelly fear their home sale will fall through.Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne have become the funniest part of this franchise. Their joint idiocy is hilarious. Most of the time, the wife is the responsible one but this franchise insists on making them both idiots. That's refreshingly funny. Moretz is a good foil. Her scene with her father is a good turn. Zac is back although the movie spends too much time on his situation. It doesn't need all that. This needs one or two big comedy sequence to get it over the top. There is one deleted sequence of Shelby fighting the Radners for their cell phones which is lots of fun. Comedy sequels can be difficult and this didn't suck. It's not great either.

I didn't have high expectations going into Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising; the first movie was no masterpiece, but it was a fairly typical Seth Rogen comedy - raunchy, fun, and full of weed. Unfortunately, Neighbors 2 fails to live up to even the mediocre expectations of Neighbors. What we get instead of a funny stoner comedy is some kind of dull, feminist soapbox where humor is replaced by spoiled college students acting like brats while trying to be portrayed as the 'good guys'.In the first Neighbors film, Seth and his wife are harassed by a fraternity moving in next door - they come up with various plans to get the frat kicked out, and eventually succeed, even getting Zac Efron's character arrested (in Neighbors 2 he notes that he now has a criminal record because of the couple's actions in the first movie). So, the first one is about a bunch of bratty frat boys who get a semi-well-deserved comeuppance in the end. Not a bad movie, but not anything to write home about either.In Neighbors 2, however, the movie starts off by introducing us to Shelby, the 'hero' of the film, as she lights up a joint in her first sorority meeting. The sorority says no because they're stuck up and not fun, so Shelby decides to start her own sorority where she and her friends from Gender Studies class can smoke all the weed they want or whatever. So she buys the old frat house off of Efron's character, and when her new neighbors the Radners come over to inform her that their house is in escrow and they'd appreciate it if the girls would keep the obnoxiousness down - Shelby, being an entitled millennial whose parents never said 'no', immediately pulls the gender card, and whines that sororities aren't allowed to party and so therefore asking them to not do that for 30 days is sexist. Henceforth the Radners are somehow the bad guys, even after the women throw dirty tampons at the Radners' house and their child gets into them. Then, to top it off, Shelby's fat friend decides it'd be a good idea to snitch on all of the pot dealers so they can have a monopoly on weed to make enough money to keep their house.Unfortunately, it seems that at this point we're STILL not allowed to see the sorority as the bad guys, even though they are quite literally ruining the lives of small time pot dealers. The Radners steal all of their weed though so that's nice, but then they respond by trying to break them up with espionage, and break into their house and sell all of their furniture. Oh boy, it's on now!Not quite. You see, in the original Neighbors, when the frat went too far, the Radners did something about it and they won. Now, when the sorority screws them over harder than the fraternity EVER did (by causing them to lose the buyer for their house, potentially giving their daughter STDs, and selling all of their furniture, etc), the Radners decide to try and screw them over back by spoiling their party. Unfortunately, when the party is ruined the girls all start crying about how they can never be friends again because they'll have to live in separate dorms, and because sexism wins again!Sadly, sexism did win in the end, and it was because for some reason the Radners forgot EVERYTHING these women did and felt sorry for them, just because they are girls and they don't have an official organization to host parties for them.. So they encourage them to continue the party, and these awful women get off Scot-free despite exposing a child to bio-hazards, robbing a house and selling the items, snitching on weed dealers and trying to break up a family. Efron's character got a criminal record for being an obnoxious party boy, but Shelby is portrayed as a strong, feminist hero who faces no consequences for her actions in the end - further reinforcing society's modern message to young women, 'consequences don't matter because consequences are sexist'.