Universal Pictures
When we last saw Mac and Kelly Radner, their baby daughter and frat boy Teddy Sanders in Neighbors, the Radners had successfully defeated the wild frat boys next door and had finally settled into their now peaceful home. Poor Teddy, who spent more time partying than studying, ended up as a shirtless Abercrombie & Fitch store model (you know, the guys who used to stand out in front of the stores).
In Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, the story picks up with the Radners about to sell their home (and with another baby on the way), Teddy out of work since A&F ditched the hunky doormen, and Teddy’s frat buddy Pete in a much different place than we last saw him. Teddy (Zac Efron) has been living with Pete (Dave Franco), but Pete is now engaged to … Darren (John Early) and the happy couple would like the place to themselves.
Feeling betrayed by his frat brother, Teddy runs off into the night, barefoot. Next door to the Radners, three young college students want to rent the former frat house so far off campus that they can hold their own raging parties because sororities are not allowed to throw parties in their own houses (this is actually a fact, not a plot device). When it becomes clear that they can never afford the rent, they see a strange man just sitting in the living room area. Teddy Sanders. But when he realizes that he can be a useful member of society by mentoring the girls in the partying ways (while getting a rent free room for his value to them), it’s on, especially since he’s still holding a bit of a grudge against the Radners.
With their home in escrow, any little thing could scuttle the deal (and they already bought a new home) but the partying under Teddy’s tutelage escalates to frat boy levels … until the girls feel Teddy is no longer of value to them because they have it all under control now. The only thing for Teddy to do now is join forces with the “old people” (of whom he is now considered by the girls) to take the new sorority down before the escrow deal falls through.
Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising follows the same basic plot of the original film, and in this case that’s okay because the first one was pretty funny. The story is advanced by having the Radners (Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne) ready to move on with their lives with a second child on the way, and even Jimmy (Ike Barinholtz) and his ex Paula (Carla Gallo) are back together and expecting themselves. And even Teddy’s frat brothers have moved on while he’s been stuck in being Teddy.
As the three sorority sisters, Chloë Grace Moretz (Shelby), Kiersey Clemons (Beth) and Beanie Feldstein (Nora) are the perfect fishes out of water who really get too far in over their heads, but still manage to hold their own against the Radners and Teddy. There are even a couple of fun cameos from Lisa Kudrow (returning as the dean), Selena Gomez as the college sorority president, and Kelsey Grammar as Shelby’s dad.
The comedy succeeds in the many action sequences, visual jokes and some “oh no they didn’t” jokes. And Barinholtz’s Jimmy really has no idea that his idea of a clown is terrifying. If you’re afraid of clowns, his brief scene in clown drag may cause you months of therapy. But what I really liked about the movie was its message of friendship and family being the important things in life, and how everyone’s stories are neatly wrapped up by the end. Hopefully there won’t be a need to revisit this well one more time.
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