Mortez, Clemons, Feldstein and their rapidly growing army of pledges (the youngest are forced to dress and act like Minions, which is one of the movie’s funnier jokes) could have carried a whole movie by themselves.
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Seth Rogen was upset to learn Zac Efron had to miss their Neighbors 2 world premiere due to his Baywatch duties.
Whatever the true nature of what happened, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising plays like a pale version of the first movie.
Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising opens Friday. While there is certainly a predictability factor considering we’ve seen shades of this before, it helps that the characters are as endearing as they were before. An elaborate prank war ensues between the Radners and the frat, led by its president, Teddy Sanders (Zac Efron). IndieWire thinks “Sorority Rising’ is probably one of the best sequels around, not a light recommendation to make considering a lot of sequels don’t quite live up to the high expectations imposed by their predecessors”. With another baby girl on the horizon, the couple’s current house is now in escrow as they’ve purchased a newer home in Georgia.
But the pair are horrified when history repeats itself, and sorority Kappa Nu move in next door to put their house sale at serious risk. Yes, it is the same house that was once occupied by Teddy and his fraternity in the first film.
Franco acknowledged his new shrinking status when he said in a recent interview about Neighbors 2: “Even though I’m not onscreen for a significant amount of time, hopefully it will be very memorable”. When we meet the girls, they are just sweet, pot smoking loners, who are looking to belong to something. Nobody captures the spirit of it all better, though, than Shelby’s father, played by an always alarmingly ideal Kelsey Grammer: “So what, you get to be just as dumb as the boys are now?” Yes. As mentioned, the feminist slant isn’t beaten to death, it actually connects perfectly to the context of the story. The same is true here.
And get this: They’re girls (cue record scratch). Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen speak up for the scared, fearless parents that younger generations can only hope they’ll evolve into. As far as the girls are concerned, this may be the most fun I’ve had watching Moretz since KICK-ASS. Feldstein’s performance as the adrenaline-powered ball of sunshine and pain pills invites comparisons to Aidy Bryant or a less complainy Jonah Hill, who as it turns out is her real-life older brother. Over and over, the movie sets up scenes that so easily could slide into “no homo” irony, yet delivers them with honest emotion. Nicholas Stoller again directs, with original writers Andrew Jay Cohen and Brendan O’Brien returning to co-author with Rogen, Stoller, and Evan Goldberg.
BI: Have you had conversations with any of them? Strangely, as disgusting as it gets – bloody tampons and vomiting during sex – it’s tempered a bit with more pratfalls and silliness. Gags that weren’t that amusing to begin with, the Radners’ toddler using a vibrator as a toy or Mac’s buddy Jimmy’s (Ike Barinholtz) clown impersonation, are driven into the ground by repetition. However, the over-the-top antics really involve everyone. We got moved to a much worse office; that was like the immediate reaction. Figuring out who you are at a younger age is becoming more important, and Teddy’s really struggling with that.
Did you pitch any jokes on Neighbors 2 that he hated? That’s not enough to make it a worthy – or even worth making – sequel to 2014 comedy, “Neighbors”.
Oh, you still keep in touch? It may lack the surprise of the first film, but it is still a flawless flick to see with a crowd.
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Moretz: We are all being highly misconstrued by media in that sense and that even when we do speak up, it’s not a bridge, it’s like it’s not okay to have an opinion anymore and you have to change that, unless you are saying everything on queue with what CNN or TMZ or any of these quote-unquote news outlets are reporting, then you’re not allowed to have an opinion. As surprising as it seems for an R-rated comedy made by many men, it totally succeeds on that front, and many others. And it’s also pretty damn amusing as well.
