Summer 2014 had quite a couple of really good comedies,
including one of the rare cases of a great comedy sequel in the form of 22 Jump Street. Another excellent comedy
from that year was director Nicholas Stoller’s Neighbors, which starred Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne as a couple with
a newborn daughter who find themselves having to deal with the very rowdy
fraternity that ends up moving in next door, led by their president played by
Zac Efron. What followed was an epic prank war between the two sides that was
full of sabotages, betrayals, and a whole lot of airbags. But one of the best
things about the film was that even though the fraternity in the film was
technically the ‘antagonist’ to Rogen and Byrne’s characters, the film didn’t
try to demonize them too much. And as I can at least certify thanks to my pal
Matthew Goudreau, who is an alumnus of Sigma Chi’s URI chapter, the film also
did a really nice job in portraying the brotherhood of fraternities, which I
think definitely helped the film find a really nice audience at the box office
($270 million, to be precise). So now we have Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising. Stoller returns to direct and most of
the first film’s cast return to reprise their roles in a film that basically follows
a plotline that is ‘almost’ exactly similar to its predecessor. Except this
time, Rogen and Byrne’s characters instead find themselves having to deal with
a sorority, which brings up a whole new set of problems for them. But the
question now is whether or not this ends up being a ‘good’ comedy sequel,
something that is obviously very rare for the genre. So does it? Well… yes and
no…
Since the events of the previous film, Mac (Seth Rogen) and
Kelly (Rose Byrne) Radner have been living a peaceful life with their daughter
Stella. With another baby on the way, the two decide to sell their house. While
they do end up attracting a potential buyer, they learn that their house will
be on ‘escrow’ status for 30 days, meaning that the deal won’t be finalized
until that time and the buyers could back out of it if they find anything wrong
with the place (e.g. another fraternity ends up moving in next door). And unfortunately
for Mac and Kelly, yet another college Greek group does end up moving in next
door to them. This time around, however, the group in question is the newly
formed sorority Kappa Nu, led by Shelby (Chloe Grace Moretz) and her friends
Beth (Kiersey Clemons) and Nora (Beanie Feldstein), who formed the sorority
after learning that in the U.S., sororities are not allowed to throw parties
while fraternities can. With the sale of their house on the line, Mac and Kelly
once again find themselves getting into a major prank war in the hopes of
getting rid of Kappa Nu. Thankfully this time around they get some extra help
from their old ‘nemesis’, former Delta Psi president Teddy Sanders (Zac Efron),
who joins their side after initially helping the Kappa Nu squad get set up, and
was then ‘dumped’ by them for being ‘too old’, so that he could feel ‘valuable’
to someone.
Neighbors 2 is
definitely one of those cases of a comedy sequel where the plot is almost
identical to the one in the first film save for a few cosmetic changes. And
like the original Neighbors, this
film does have a bit of a slow start before it really starts to get into the
humor. However, I didn’t really find this one to be ‘as funny’ as the original.
Now don’t get me wrong there are plenty of funny moments in the film which,
like the original, mainly stem from all of the pranks that both sides do to
each other. However, I can’t really say that there were as many ‘laugh out
loud’ moments compared to those in the first one, to the point where quite a few
funny scenes from the trailer didn’t even appear in the film (e.g. LL Cool J’s
cameo as Beth’s father). Case in point, this film ends on a much simpler note
compared to the first film and while I do like the message that the ending
conveys in regards to the strength of Kappa Nu’s sisterhood, it’s still rather
disappointing that the film doesn’t end on a note similar to how the first film
did with its epically hilarious fight between Mac and Teddy. But at the same
time, this film can also be very much commended for its feminist themes, which
of course are mainly exemplified through Shelby and her Kappa Nu sisters and
their efforts in challenging ‘the sexist system’. But while the film’s feminist
themes are genuinely well-handled, sometimes they admittedly come off a bit
heavy-handed. By that I mean the film does kind of drill in the whole ‘sexist
system’ thing to the point where it keeps doing so even after it already got
its point across early on in the film.
One of the great things about the original Neighbors was that even though Mac and
Kelly were the ‘main protagonists’, the film didn’t vilify Teddy and his Delta
Psi brothers. For one thing, Mac and Kelly didn’t always make good decisions,
especially in regards to raising their daughter, so it’s not like we sided with
them all the time. Sometimes we really could sympathize with Teddy and his
struggles in coping with the inevitability of graduation and moving on to ‘real
life’, which was one of the main themes of the film; how one handles the idea
of getting older. In the case of Neighbors
2 the same idea applies. We do root for Mac and Kelly, especially
considering there’s more at stake for them this time around given that they’ve
already bought another house and are highly dependent on the sale of their old
house, but can also side with Shelby and her Kappa Nu sisters for their efforts
in combatting the sexism directed towards sororities like theirs. Chloe Grace
Moretz does a very solid job taking on the same kind of role that Zac Efron had
in the first film, especially when she’s working off of her ‘sisters’ Beth and
Nora. Their trio serves as a great foil to Kelly and Mac while also managing to
be very sympathetic in regards to their aspirations to beat ‘the system’.
Returning members of the cast are great once again; Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne
continue to have solid chemistry and the two work off of Zac Efron incredibly
well. And as for Efron, once again he proves to be a major standout thanks to
his excellent comedic timing, as Teddy finds himself in yet another, as the
film puts it, ‘quarter-life crisis’.
While Neighbors 2 hasn’t
really gotten the same amount of positive reception that its predecessor did, I
have actually seen a few people argue that this film was better than the first,
mainly in regards to this one having more depth to it. And while I do understand
where they are coming from, ultimately I do think that the first film was
better. The sequel definitely does have its moments and once again benefits
from an excellent cast. Plus, this film does do a nice job in terms of handling
its feminist themes. However, this time around the jokes ended up being a bit
more hit and miss. And as great as its feminist angle is, sometimes it’s a
little bit too on the nose with it. So in short, Neighbors 2 was a bit of a mixed bag for me, which was rather
disappointing because I really liked the original Neighbors. As far as comedy sequels go, I do think that it’s at
least one of the better ones but I wouldn’t say that it was one of the ‘absolute
best’ either. At the very least I can say that, like the original Neighbors, this film is worthy of
becoming a new essential college flick. Because the great thing about both
films is that they make a lot of effort to appeal to the college Greek community
and while I may not be a member of any fraternity, both of these films do a
nice job in conveying the brotherly/sisterly bonds of fraternities and
sororities, respectively.
Rating: 2.5/5
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