Girls just want to have fun in Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, the sequel to 2014's Stoner Movie of the Year, Neighbors. Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne return as the harried parents who once again have to deal with a noisy party house next door.
Frosh pledges Shelby (Chloë Grace Moretz), Beth (Kiersey Clemons from Dope) and Nora (Beanie Feldstein) are shocked when they find out that sororities are not allowed to throw parties like their male frat counterparts. They decide to break the rules and start their own sorority, Kappa Nu, with help from Teddy Sanders (Zach Efron) of Neighbors' Delta Psi frat. He teaches them the ropes (five buckets of cash earned at parties will pay their monthly $5,000 rent), but is quickly discarded by the girls. So he walks next door and reintroduces himself to Mac (Rogen) and Kelly (Byrne), who are expecting their second child and are selling the house. But the new owners will quickly balk on the deal if they discover the wild goings-on at Kappa Nu. With Teddy on their side, the battle royal begins.
The best scene involves a garbage bag filled with pot. Kappu Nu is running out of money and decides to sell weed to stay afloat. Mac, Kelly and Teddy seize the opportunity by stealing the buds at an outdoor campus event. A chase scene ensues (see above photo) and the weed ends up pouring out of the bag and into the hands of ravenous students.
Rogen, who co-wrote Neighbors 2 with director Nicholas Stoller, Evan Goldberg, Andrew J. Cohen and Brenden O'Brien, brings the raunch with a ballsack scene and one-liners like, "We have a little Jew in the oven." When drinks are spiked with roofies at a party, Mac exclaims, "We got Cosby-ed!"
Moretz, Clemons and Friedman are passable in their parts as campus proto-feminists. Dave Franco, Ike Barinholtz, Jerrod Carmichael, Carla Gallo, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Lisa Kudrow all return from the original cast, and cameos are made by Hannibal Buress, Abbi Jacobson (from Broad City), Kelsey Grammar, Selena Gomez (from Spring Breakers), Kyle Mooney (from SNL) and Billy Eichner.
It all adds up to a pre-summer comedy without much heft or real purpose, other then to get young moviegoers into theaters. The stony Neighbors 2 may not match the first film's $150 box office, but it should come close.
