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Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016), R, ★★★

It's on again...this time...with a sorority.
I have to confess, ok, so I have seen frat parties and frat guys and sorority girls mingle around at parties and all I have to say is expect the unexpected about 50% of the time, but the other 50%, it is just a normal gathering amongst other friends. But, I did not realize from the basis of the movie that sororities were not allowed to throw a party. I still do not understand the reasoning behind it but maybe from the universities' standpoint, they do not want ultimate chaos to tarnish their reputation. However, even though I liked the first Neighbors movie, it did not have enough LOL moments to propel it to a great comedy. Even if had some cliches and the comedy drags a bit, I thought there were more laughs and a message throw on-screen to potentially make this sequel better than the first movie.

Mac and Kelly Radner (Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne) are trying to sell their home with another baby on the way. A couple, the Baiers' (Sam Richardson and Abbi Jacobson), are looking to buy, but the realtor (Liz Cackowski) tells Mac and Kelly that their house is in escrow for 30 days, meaning the couple will check up on the house and Mac and Kelly every now and then. Mac is a bit nervous regarding having another baby but Jimmy (Ike Barinholtz), Mac's friend and co-worker, whose once-again Paula (Carla Gallo) is pregnant, tells him that he will be a better father.

Somewhere on campus, a sorority called Phi Lambda is having a meeting with a group of freshman girls wanting to join. Shelby (Chloe Grace Moretz) is smoking a joint and the president of the sorority (Selena Gomez) tells her to put out the joint and that sororities cannot throw parties. Shelby meets two other freshmen, Beth (Kersey Clemons) and Nora (Beanie Feldstein). They attend a frat party and are really disgusted by the perverse nature of parties and while smoking weed, they decide to form a sorority called Kappa Nu.

Teddy (Zac Efron) has not been able to get a good job because of his criminal record which he blames on Mac and Kelly. His frat brothers (Dave Franco, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jerrod Carmichael) who has been going further with their careers. Teddy hides his heartbreak when Pete (Franco) gets engaged and has to move out and he lives in the old frat house in which Shelby and her friends are wanting to rent the house. Soon, the girls move in and throw a party and Mac and Kelly are horrified that it is a sorority and it's on!

Oh no! It's Moretz and company.
I appreciated the movie's time length because lately with movies starring Seth Rogen, his comedies are overlong most of the time. I feel like this movie zips by more quickly than the first movie because the first movie stage the jokes much too early and in a montage type of fashion that bugged me and most of the movie stages a sort of lull. Here, the message is being presented in terms of gender equality and independence that overshadows the comedy and is trying to be about something. There's a bit of plot and backstory into most of the characters.

Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne still builds that talented rapport and chemistry that is entertaining to watch. Byrne has fun most of the movie but has to lay back because her character is pregnant throughout the movie. Zac Efron steals the movie again as a guy who is heartbroken regarding his life and his situation but delivers the laughs regarding his physical comedy and his chemistry with Rogen and Byrne as he teams up with them to take the sorority down. I like Chloe Grace Moretz but I did not buy her character as a bad-girl with a plan to have more equality in the system. Her character looked too young to represent the female epitome of Zac Efron and got a bit annoying at times. But, I like Feldstein and Clemons just fine.

The comedy hits big laughs more this time than the first movie and the message is well-delivered even though the third act is flawed regarding character development, the resolution is quite effective. Neighbors 2 has the pleasure of delivering that rare comedy sequel is which the second movie is better or on par with the material in the first movie. It is sort of an unnecessary movie, but it is a rare treat to watch a comedy that is better to serve the material.

***


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