The first film was a big hit at the cinemas, I saw the trailer for the sequel, Sorority Rising, a few times and read it got higher star ratings than the original, so I wasn't going to miss it, directed by Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Get Him to the Greek). Basically, Mac Radner (Seth Rogen) and his Australian wife Kelly (Rose Byrne) are expecting their second child and prepare to sell their house. Eric (Sam Richardson) and Jessica Baiers (Abbi Jacobson) are interested, but the realtor Wendy (Liz Cackowski) reminds the Radners that their home is in escrow (the temporary holding of payment, until the buyers finalise the sale) for 30 days. Mac's friend Jimmy (Ike Barinholtz) and his wife Paula (Carla Gallo) are also expecting a baby. College freshman Shelby Robek (Chloë Grace Moretz) meets fellow students Beth (Kiersey Clemons) and Nora (Booksmart's Beanie Feldstein). The trio are devastated that sororities are not allowed to host parties and disgusted by sexist and predatory frat parties. So they decide to find a new place and create a new sorority, Kappa Nu, to throw their own parties. Teddy Sanders (Zac Efron) has a criminal record cannot find a worthwhile job, following his actions living next door to the Radners. He tries to spend time with his former frat brothers, but they are moving in different directions. Pete Regazolli (Dave Franco) has become a successful architect and has come out as gay, Scoonie (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) has launched his own mobile app, and Garfield "Garf" Slade (Jerrod Carmichael) has graduated police academy and is a rookie cop. The friends help Pete's boyfriend Darren (John Early) propose, leading Pete to ask Teddy to move out. Distraught, Teddy runs to the old frat house, next door to the Radners. Shelby, Beth, and Nora arrive there and intend to rent the house for Kappa Nu, they find Teddy there as well. As the girls are unable to afford the rent, Teddy finds an opportunity to be valued and offers to help them throw parties, earning enough donations and new members to pay rent. Mac and Kelly encountered Teddy and are curious why he is in the neighbourhood, then realise the sorority have moved in next door. They fear that the loud and hectic parties will scare off the buyers of their house. They go to Kappa Nu and politely ask them to refrain from partying for 30 days, but the girls refuse. The Radners report the sorority to Dean Carol Gladstone (Lisa Kudrow) but she cannot control an independent sorority. The couple also call Shelby's father (Kelsey Grammar) to talk to his daughter, but his emotions get the better of him and he also fails to help. The intervening with their fun leads to Kappa Nu pranking the Radners, throwing several used tampons and menstruation pads on and through their windows. Mac, Kelly, Jimmy, and Paula retaliate, infesting the sorority house with bed bugs, forcing the girls to evacuate and call pest control to cover the house in fumigation tenting. The Baiers visit the house while this is occurring, and Mac and Kelly get Jimmy and Paula to pretend to be their new quiet and peaceful Jewish neighbours. Teddy argues with Pete about the state of his life and moves into the sorority. Low on funds to pay rent, the girls plan to sell marijuana at a party, calling the police to arrest other dealers, eliminating the competition. Teddy objects to this plan, so the girls kick him out. Feeling unvalued and vengeful of their betrayal, he decides to join forces with the Radners to take down Kappa Nu. They infiltrate the big-scale event with marijuana being sold. Teddy distracts the girls with an onstage striptease, while Jimmy steals the drugs, hiding it in a trash bag. Shelby realises the theft, she and the other girls try to retrieve the bag of drugs, but despite a mishap, they get away with them. Mac and Kelly realise Teddy's lack of direction and invite him to stay with them. To get their own back, the girls obtain Mac and Kelly's cell phone numbers and through text messages trick Mac into flying to Sydney, Australia, and Kelly to think he is having an affair. Returning home, the Radners find Kappa Nu has robbed and vandalised their house. The Baiers find the house is in a state and threaten to pull out from the sale unless the sorority is kicked out. When the sorority receives an eviction notice, Shelby sees no choice but to organise a sexually gratuitous frat-style party to raise money. Mac and Kelly plan to call the police and shut the party down, and Jimmy and Paula sneak into it, while Teddy cannot shut the power off. Mac and Teddy end up locked in the garage, but they break out using airbags. Kelly overhears Beth and Nora arguing with Shelby for compromising their sorority principles, but Kelly encourages the girls not to give up on themselves. Paula goes into labour, and Teddy reconciles with Pete and Darren, happily agreeing to serve as their best man. The sorority enjoys a more empowering party for themselves and a crowd of girls from other sororities want to join Kappa Nu. With an overflow of money and new members, the sorority can keep their home, and the Radners agree to rent their house to Kappa Nu as well, earning them more cash than selling the house. Three months later, Teddy prepares Pete to walk down the aisle. Teddy has utilised his party-planning experience to become a wedding planner for gay couples. Mac and Kelly have moved into their new home, with no close neighbours, and bring home their new baby, Mildred, to meet Jimmy and Paula's new son, Jimmy Jr. Also starring Selena Gomez as Madison, Phi Lambda President, Awkwafina as Christine, Hannibal Buress as Officer Watkins, twins Elise and Zoey Vargas as Stella, Billy Eichner as Oliver Studebaker, and Brian Huskey as Bill Wazakowski. Rogen and Byrne as the married couple, Efron as the attention-seeking as the former nemesis turned ally, and Moretz as the sorority leader all give equally reliable performances, and up-and-coming stars Awkwafina and Feldstein make an impression also. As before the film is basically the characters conspiring and trying to outdo each other, filled with over-the-top slapstick and some gross-out moments, loads of swearing and drug use, I can see why critics praise it slightly more than the original, a fun comedy. Good!

I'll give this a 6/10 because it's still a solid high budget comedy starring some great talent.

The issue was too many jokes fell flat. The sorority sisters did not say or do anything I can remember laughing at.

The material was really weak. I love absurd random humor (Family Guy or basically any other Seth Rogen film), but some of the randomness in this film just lacked anything I found funny. Even worse, is that some of the randomness used in plot points really made you disconnected from the entire film and not care.

As I watched this film, I remembered how despite the shallow plot of Neighbors, I still loved it and it pulled me in. The fraternity was interesting and funny. In contrast, the sorority of Neighbors 2 lacked any good jokes. The sorority sisters actually managed to pull off something that no actors have ever done in all of history. They were so unfunny, they almost made Seth Rogen not funny.

On the plus side, It's only 90 minutes and I don't remember ever feeling bored or sleepy during the movie or wanting to walk out early. So for that this movie has earned a solid 6/10.

"Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising" (2016 release; 92 min.) brings the return of Mac and Kelly and their daughter Stella. As the movie opens, we see Mac and Kelly making love until Kelly she throws up on him. "I think I may be pregnant!" she cries out. We then move "4 Months Later", as Mac and Kelly have found a potential buyer for the house but now must go through the 30 days escrow period. In a parallel story line, we get to know Shelby, a freshman. She is rushing Phi Lambda. When she learns that the sorority cannot throw parties but instead must attend parties at the frats, Shelby and 2 new friends decide to start their own sorority, Kappa Nu, outside of the existing sorority system so they can do whatever they want. When looking for a sorority house, they end up next to Mac and Kelly (of course). At this point we're not even 15 minutes into the movie, but to tell you more would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: most of the crew and cast from the first movie have returned for the sequel, and hence we get Seth Rogan (Mac) and Rose Byrne (Kelly), but of course also Zac Efron as Teddy, doing the same old 'dumb jock' stud as in the first movie (with the required striptease of course). But the sequel benefits most from the addition of Chloë Grace Moretz in the role of Shelby, Moretz, the erstwhile 'child actress' (in Kick-Ass) is all frown up now, and has transformed herself into a leading actress, see also earlier this year's "The 5th Wave". As Shelby, she and her gals are all about grrrl power and equal rights, but in a fun and non-preachy way, and that helps the movie greatly. Yes, there is a lot of partying in the movie, but rarely in a way that is degrading for women. Keep an eye out for Lisa Kudrow as the university dean (she plays in exactly one scene) and Kelsey Grammar as Shelby's dad (also in all of one scene). Other than that, this movie doesn't intend to be anything other than a mindless entertaining sequel to the first one, and at that it succeeds. So enjoy it for what it is, nothing more, nothing less.

"Neighbors 2" is now in its second week of release, and the Memorial Day early evening screening where I saw this at here in Cincinnati was attended okay but not great. Probably the picture-perfect weather was a factor, but the truth also is that the sequel hasn't done nearly as well at the box office as expected. It's a bit of a surprise to me as this movie surely is truth-in-advertising: you wanted more of what you saw in the first movie? Well here it is. If you have seen the first movie and wonder whether the sequel is worth checking out, by all means give this once a chance, be it in the theater, on Amazon Instant Video or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, I think you will not be disappointed.