In my long tenure here at Flixist I’ve carved out a niche for myself. If you see a review for a Seth Rogen film or a sequel to a comedy, chances are it’s my words you’re reading. So little did I know I’d stick around here long enough for those two niches to crossover. Since the first Neighbors was the weakest Rogen/Goldberg film to date, it seemed the least likely to get a sequel. Yet, here we are.
Like most comedy sequels before it, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising is pretty much the same film with a new coat of paint. While that new coat of paint makes the house more appealing to the eye, it’s only distracting you from the burial ground it’s built on.
Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising
Director: Nicholas Stoller
Rating: R
Release Date: May 20, 2016
A few years after the events of the first film, parents Mac (Seth Rogen) and Kelly (Rose Byrne) are selling their home because they’re expecting their next child. But not realizing what they had agreed to, the two end up in escrow. Meaning they have to keep their home buyer friendly for 30 days lest they end owning two homes. At the same time, Shelby (Chloe Grace-Moretz), Beth (Kiersey Clemons), and Nora (Beanie Feldstein) are three college girls who find out sororities aren’t allowed to throw parties. Deciding to start a sorority of their own, and with the help of first film antagonist Teddy (Zac Efron), they move in next door to Mac and Kelly. After a series of shenanigans, Mac and Kelly once again find themselves in a prank war against the rowdy college kids next door.
Although Neighbors 2 tries its best to be different, it falls into the same traps most comedy sequels do. Given the nature of comedies in general, with each of them intentionally being a one-off story, all any sequel can do is try and capture what worked before and improve what did not. So if you enjoyed the first film, you might not enjoy this one. Everything’s basically the same between the two films and there’s not a lot added here to differentiate. There’s the same air-bag gag, the same weak jokes about Rogen’s body compared to Efron’s, and despite poking fun on the mysoginistic voice of the first film, there’s the same type of penis jokes. Which means that what it’s trying to do thematically, presenting a “feminist” comedy (despite being written by five white men), is already worse for wear. It’s hard to take anything seriously when one huge sequence ends with Zac Efron dancing until he shows his privates to a huge crowd.
Even if it doesn’t change much of the story elements, Neighbors 2 still does an admirable job in turning the comedy sequel on its head. Simultaneously ridiculing and reveling in the premise, each of the characters have been surprisingly developed. Capitalizing on the character’s ages (and further expanding on the “Dad Rogen” type introduced in the first film), there’s a slightly compelling emotional current underneath all of the penis jokes. As everyone tries to figure out their identity in the film (whether Mac and Kelly can admit to being bad parents or Zac Efron’s Teddy realizing he needs to move forward in life after being stuck in his millenial childlike state), Neighbors 2 touches on a slightly more level headed take on uncertain futures. But sadly this is all in between bursts of juvenile story telling.
It’s a shame too because when Neighbors 2 does distance itself from standard bro comedy jokes, it’s quite refreshing. Despite being a film where terrible people do terrible things to one another, the few moments where it acknowledges the shortcomings are pretty great. Once again, Zac Efron steals the show. Elaborating on the lovable loser story from the first film, Teddy’s become even more pathetic as he’s basically aged out of the genre. A lot of the jokes in this revolve around how the entire crew would rather be doing something else (down to Mac and Kelly’s terrible absentee parenting) and this nihilism is charming in a roundabout way. If you look in a little deeper, it’s almost as if the film is telling Zac Efron to go ahead and move on to even bigger roles. It’s pretty much time anyway. In that same breath, he’s the only one that gets this kind of attention. Every other character is practically window dressing to Teddy’s evolution, and it only makes you wish for a film that focused on this theme alone.
I want to reward these attempts at new types of humor and themes, but they never quite go anywhere. For example while the sorority in the film is sincere and founded on equal rights ideals, the girls themselves aren’t characterized well enough to truly make an impact of any kind. It’s impossible for a comedy to accomplish that within 90 minutes, so these ideals feel like an afterthought. It feels like the change from a fraternity to a sorority is more cosmetic and a feminist lead character was only added only to be a plot contrivance to start the whole prank war. In fact, one character in the film literally says the sorority is “untouchable” in order to speed up the extremeness of Mac and Kelly’s actions. Neighbors 2 does deserve credit for adding these elements when it could’ve been just another bro comedy, but it’s not enough to acknowledge issues or inherent problems with the bro comedy genre while still trying to utilize the cruder elements of it.
Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising isn’t the best film, or the funniest, but it’s at least visibly trying to do something different. It’s a groundbreaking comedy sequel in that it’s not just doing the exact same thing over again for quick money. I mean it is still doing a lot of the same stuff, and while the new ideas aren’t explored enough to warrant any kind of real change, the fact there is a refreshing seeming film at the end of the day is pleasant.
The only problem overall is both films just aren’t memorable. It’s not like you’ll be quoting its jokes years later or even remember what happened a week down the line.
