Review: Bad Neighbours 2: Sorority Rising
Mac and Kelly Radner (Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne) can't seem to catch a break. Having vanquished the lunkheaded frat boys of Delta Psi Beta from the house next door, the youngish married couple find themselves newly engaged in mutually assured destruction with their new neighbours, the girls of Kappa Nu.
Led by pot-smoking Shelby (Chloë Grace Moretz) and her friends Beth (Kiersey Clemons) and Nora (Beanie Feldstein), Kappa Nu came into being after the girls discovered the longstanding edict that sororities aren't allowed to throw their own parties. So where's a sorority girl to go if they wanna have some fun? Fraternity parties where degradation, spiked booze, and unreliably consensual sex await. Mac and Kelly are all for the girls' right to female empowerment, but not when the girls' parties threaten the sale of their home. Having bought a new house outright and with a second baby on the way, the resignedly no longer hip-with-it couple need to ensure that nothing goes wrong while their current home is in escrow, essentially a 30-day period where the new owners can change their mind for whatever reason.
Naturally a prank war ensues after the girls refuse Mac and Kelly's request to mute their partying during the escrow period. The strongest bit finds Mac stepping out of his home to be confronted by scores of bikini-clad girls, who proceed to rip his clothes off as he makes his way to the safety of his car. Kelly storms out, spraying water on the girls with a garden hose, but her tactic backfires. "You're only making them sexier!" yells a panicked Mac. With so many laugh out loud moments, Bad Neighbours 2: Sorority Rising is the rare comedy sequel that may be funnier and more insightful than the original.
Much of the comedy is rooted in truth, such as when Mac and Kelly deploy Shelby's father (Kelsey Grammer) to talk sense into her. He rails into Shelby only to ultimately concede defeat but, as he sobs to the astonished couple, it was just so nice to see his baby girl again. A running gag involving the dildo their daughter Stella has embraced is a constant reminder to Mac and Kelly of their insecurities as parents which, in turn, complicates their feelings about their battle with Kappa Nu, whose essential message of sisterhood and strong women is one they want to foster for their daughter's sake. Then there is the bitingly hysterical (and topical) scene featuring Jerrod Carmichael and Hannibal Buress as two black officers busting several fraternity houses.
Perhaps the best example of the warmth and empathy the filmmakers have for their characters is Teddy (Zac Efron), Mac and Kelly's former fratboy nemesis who is now lost in the generational limbo that unmoored Mac and Kelly in the first film. All his frat brothers have moved on in their personal and professional lives but Teddy is rudderless - not a boy, not yet a man - ill-equipped for the responsibilities of adulthood, and shocked to realise that he is now viewed as one of the old people by the new generation of partiers. Efron is the undisputed MVP of the film, mixing sweetness and stupidity to create a surprisingly tragicomic figure. Don't worry, he still takes his shirt off but he proves himself more than just a pretty face with an enviable six-pack.
Bad Neighbours 2: Sorority Rising
Directed by: Nicholas Stoller
Written by: Andrew Jay Cohen, Brendan O'Brien, Nicholas Stoller, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg
Starring: Seth Rogen, Zac Efron, Rose Byrne, Chloë Grace Moretz, Ike Barinholtz, Kiersey Clemons, Dave Franco, Jerrod Carmichael, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Beanie Feldstein, Selena Gomez, Hannibal Buress, Lisa Kudrow, Kelsey Grammer, Abbi Jacobson, Kyle Mooney, Billy Eichner, Sam Richardson, Liz Cackowski
