It's raunchy and witty, but, hey, that's sorority life.
Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising
Grade: B
Director: Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall)
Screenplay: Andrew Jay Cohen (Neighbors), et al.
Cast: Seth Rogen (The Night Before)
Rating: R
Runtime: 92 min.
by John DeSando
"We've got to do what all adults do: stop young people from having fun.” Mac Radner (Seth Rogen)
Having watched Neighbors, about a frat house moving next to a youngish couple, I feel fully versed in male gross-out antics, bountiful bongs, and weed found not just in an overgrown lawn. What I was not prepared for in Neighbors 2 was partying sorority girls moving in where the boys used to be and playing rougher.
Their partying seems to eclipse the boys’ if you consider bloody tampons as weapons against the “old people’ next door (Rogen and Rose Byrne as his wife, Kelly). Then again, I can’t think of much more than that, so the story must be more about strategy than egregious incivility. The Radners have an escrow sale of their house with thirty days for the buyers to buy, contingent in the end on the girls being good for the prospective buyer. That’s not going to happen!
Most of the comedy is low, as you would suspect, with slapstick, pratfalls, and base visuals such as the Radner toddler playing with a dildo. However, after the usual silly stuff (and much of that is witty enough to make even me laugh), some questions are posed about women’s rights and equality, for instance, that girls are not allowed to party in sorority houses but men are in their own.
Additionally, Zac Efron as the dimwitted mid-twenties hunk has room to show his acting chops. His line, “There’s no I in sorority,” is a perfect illustration of his character.
The issue of fairness becomes a motif, even as the girls are forced for their survival to imitate the activities of the sexist frats in order to keep their house. Shelby (Chloe Grace Moritz) rallies the sorority girls with talk of solidarity, not just against fraternity dictatorship, but also against authorities and old people, who seem to forget that girls are young and good at heart.
Yet in the end, Neighbors 2 is more of the same base humor dotted with social issues. That humor had me smirking and laughing out loud—that’s the best recommendation I can give: It’s funny.
"I’m a human woman. I need to watch this.” Beth (Kiersey Clemons) “This” is Zac Efron dancing without a shirt—nothing gross about that reaction—it’s human.
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.rr.com
