Review of Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016) by Jesse O — 19 Oct 2016

First non-horror movie of the month. I think I've done pretty good this year honestly. The first year I did this, I definitely watched fewer horror that first year. The second and third year (this one) has been more consistent.

So, yea, I can allow myself a day off from horror movies. Moving on to this review, I don't think I could agree more with a consensus than with this one. There's nothing that is essential in this film.

Nothing that you actually need to see. Realistically speaking, this is really a repeat of the first movie, but instead of a fraternity, Mac and Kelly now have to feud with against a sorority. With that said, if you watch this in a vacuum, without having any knowledge whatsoever of the first Neighbors, this is a pretty good comedy all things considered.

Even taking it in context, having seen Neighbors, this is still a pretty good movie. It's obviously not as good or as fresh as the first movie, but I was entertained by it. It's clear, though, that audiences weren't buying it.

This made three times its budget. It made $107 million on a $35 million budget. The first movie made $270 million on an $18 million budget. So the people clearly saw this as an unnecessary sequel or maybe they just saw it as more of the same, because they just didn't buy it.

And that's a shame. Because, like I said, I found this movie entertaining in spit of its repetitiveness and the addition of a sorority adds somewhat of a new dynamic to the proceedings. Unfortunately, though, I do think the sequel regurgitates some of the original's themes.

Like Teddy not being able to move forward from his college days whereas his friends have all moved on to successful careers and happy lives. He comes across these three girls, who want to start their own sorority outside of the system so they can have all the parties they want since, apparently, sororities can't throw parties.

So Teddy befriends them and he helps them get their sorority up and going. This also serves as Teddy's chance to get revenge on Mac and Kelly for destroying everything that he loved. As the sorority grows, they decide to let Teddy go and he then joins Kelly and Mac in order to destroy the sorority from the inside out.

Really, Teddy is searching for someone to value him, so at least that's somewhat different from the first movie. The three lead girls, Nora, Beth and Morgan pretty much want to belong, since their existence in high school was marred by a lack of friends or a sense of place.

So this sorority is their way to create a sisterly bond with each other and others who think like them. Going back to the regurgitation of themes, Mac and Kelly have to deal with whether or not they're bad parents.

I don't know if it was like that in the first film exactly, but it's close enough that it just feels like a shameless repetition of what came before it. Though it does lead to one funny recurring joke where Stella, the daughter from the first movie, has a vibrator as a toy.

They dress it up in princess outfits and all that to disguise what it is, but everyone figures it out. It's not as lewd as it sounds, but it's a funny recurring joke. Like I said, I was entertained by the movie in spite of it all feeling too similar to the original movie.

They do manage to get some new bits out of the sorority concept. The cast is great, so no complaints on that front at all. I know a lot of people will probably dislike this movie because of how unnecessary of a sequel it actually is.

But, in spite of being just a good comedy, this is one of the better unnecessary sequels I've ever seen.