I didn’t see the 2014 movie Neighbors starring Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne, and Zac Efron, but I love a good comedy, and figured the sequel Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising would be entertaining. Boy, was I wrong. It wasn’t my lack of prior knowledge about the characters that led to my disappointment, but instead the fact that the movie was crude and offensive.
Rogen and Byrne play married couple Mac and Kelly Radner, parents to the adorable toddler Stella. The Radners are in the process of selling their house so they have room for Baby #2, who’s on the way, and they’re elated when a nice family decides to buy their house. Once the house is officially in escrow, the Radners just have to wait 30 days, before they can turn over the keys, and move into their new dream home.
That’s when trouble moves in next door. A group of college freshman girls led by Shelby, played by Chloe Grace Moretz, have started their own sorority because they want to be able to throw parties that aren’t misogynistic like all of the fraternity parties on the college campus. Kappa Nu is formed under the guise that the girls want to form lifelong sisterly bonds without being peer pressured into sex, but it’s all a farce. The girls are interested in getting high pure and simple, and there is nothing authentic or sincere about their friendship other than their desire to smoke weed.
The Radners fear the sorority girls will interfere with the sale of their home, and a former nemesis Teddy Sanders, played by Zac Efron, becomes their ally. Just like he did in Disney’s High School Musical, Efron’s dance moves are showcased, but this time it’s more of a Chippendale style performance. (Watching him dance was the best part of the film.)
The movie itself was filled with major plot holes as the Radners and Teddy tried to force the sorority out of the house next door. One such plot hole was the fact that the Radners were the only family on their street who had a problem with a sorority moving in next door.
Another issue that made the movie a disappointment included the over the top level of crass conversation. The f-word was used over and over again to the point that I was thinking, “Enough already!” It’s as if the writers decided that there was a quota on how many times that expletive needed to be used.
While viewers will sympathize with the Radners’ predicament, they won’t find any humor in their parenting style. They keep drug paraphernalia all over the house, constantly swear in front of their daughter, and let her carry Mommy’s battery-operated “special toy” everywhere. Come on, seriously? Also the opening scene of the movie shows the couple having sex, and I’m not prudish, but I can tell you it was disgusting for reasons you don’t even want to imagine.
The sorority girls are indeed the antagonists in the movie, and there is absolutely nothing about them that I liked, not even a little. I’ll admit that the movie Old School is one of my favorite comedies, and it’s got a similar theme: an odd group of misfits form a fraternity in the middle of a residential area. The difference between Old School and Neighbors 2 is that the group of fraternity guys in Old School are likable and quirky, whereas the sorority girls in Neighbors 2 are classless, self-absorbed juvenile delinquents.
As a woman, I was offended by jokes made about rape, which is a real epidemic across college campuses. There was a line in the movie about drinks at a party being “Cosby-ed” in reference to Bill Cosby’s current legal situation in which over 55 women have accused the comedian of sexually assaulting them after slipping them drugs. Not funny.
My neighbor Stephanie attended the movie with me, and at one point she leaned over and whispered, “I feel sorry for you that you have to write about this. I wouldn’t know where to begin.” When the movie was over, I asked her what she thought about it to which she responded, “I have no words.” She called the characters “low class trash” and asked, “Why did they spend any money making it?”
The only positive spin I can try to put on the movie other than Efron’s dance moves, is that there were a few lines here and there that made me chuckle. Maybe they’ll make you smile too. Maybe.
For movie times click here.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Nicholas Stoller
Actors: Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne, Zac Efron, Chloe Grace Moretz
Rating: R for profanity, sexual content, and drug use
Running Time: 1 hour 32 minutes
