The sequel to Bad Neighbours, titled Bad Neighbours 2: Sorority Rising, is pretty much a rehash of the first film (why change a winning formula?) but the ‘antagonists’ of the piece are sorority girls rather than a fraternity. Mac (Seth Rogan) and Kelly (Rose Byrne) are trying to sell their house and have found some buyers but the neighbouring house is brought by Sorority. With the house in escrow (a thirty-day period where the buyers can pull out at any time) the behaviour of the sorority girls has to be good, but it turns out they’re just as bad as the guys and both Mac and Kelly have to go to war once again.
Changing the gender of the loud, party animals next door allows the filmmakers to make points about gender equality. Unsurprisingly, and ridiculously, this pissed a few people off as they didn’t want ‘sjw humour in their comedies’. In fact, the film discusses the theme rather decently with the girls forming their own group and throwing their own parities (despite sororities not being allowed to throw parties) serving as a way to say that women should not be restricted because of their gender.
Former teenage heartthrob Zac Efron has, of late, made quite a name for himself in the comedy genre. Not only has he shown great comic timing, he has also shown impressive comedic physical performances as well and for these reasons he’s highly in demand (he starred in three comedies in 2016 alone). He’s impressive once again, as are Seth Rogan (to be expected) and Rose Byrne who play the married couple waging war against the sorority girls next door.
It isn’t a film that diverts from the formula that made the first film a success, some of the jokes involving air bags are even repeated but Bad Neighbours: Sorority Rising is a fun and humorous film that is a slight improvement over the first film.
3/5
