Ah frat-house comedies. 2014’s Bad Neighbours was a classic example of the genre, pitting a Zac Efron led fraternity against their neighbours (Seth Rogen & Rose Byrne) who had just become parents for the first time, in an all out war for the street. The follow up, aptly named Bad Neighbours 2, has just hit cinemas and as always the question is, so, is it any good?
Bad Neighbours 2 picks up where the original left off with Mac (Rogen) and Kelly Radner (Byrne) looking to sell their home and upsize now that their daughter Stella is a little older. After their house has been on the market for months, and after already purchasing a new home, their own home finally receives an offer and goes into escrow. With only 30 days standing between them and the sale, they try to do everything they can to stop the buyers from backing out, which of course proves much harder than it should be.
Enter freshman, Shelby (Chloe Grace Moretz) who wants nothing more than to join a sorority, however she quickly learns that there a huge differences in standards between fraternities and sororities (no pot and no parties to start with), and this is where the genre gets flipped on it’s head. Yes, that rule is actually true – Sororities in the Greek System have very different rules to fraternities and so begins the feminist undertones to the movie. At the end of the day though, this is still a comedy, and in their quest for gender equality, they rent out the old Delta Psi house next door to the Radners as their new sorority house, completely ruining their plans to get through escrow unscathed.
I’m not usually a huge fan of comedy sequels – they always seem to rehash the same old jokes and the same storyline that got them across the line with the original, and here, Bad Neighbours 2 is really no different. Quite frankly though, I found it funnier than the original and a little bit of social commentary in a comedy (in this case, gender equality) never goes astray.
At times you find yourself rooting for both of the different camps because there are no real bad guys in the film. Teddy’s (Zac Efron) team swap comes and no surprise, and really, it doesn’t matter which camp he’s in, he still spends roughly 90% of the movie oiled up and shirtless. He’s desperate to be taken seriously after all of his friends leave him behind in their adult lives, while he remains stuck in the same dead end jobs, with very few prospects.
Aside from the particulars, this really is the same movie, with updated jokes and a slightly different storyline to get it across the line with the studios. It’s watchable, and at times you will probably laugh out loud, but it’s definitely not one for anyone who didn’t like the original.
BAD NEIGHBOURS 2 is in cinemas now.