NEIGHBORS 2: SORORITY RISING (Nicholas Stoller). 92 minutes. Opens Friday (May 20). See listing. Rating: NNN
Neighbors 2 is a clever and very funny sequel to 2014’s raunchy parents-vs-students comedy. This time out, 30-something parents Mac and Kelly Radner (Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne) are selling their home because they need more room for baby number two.
When a group of alternative, party-loving sorority sisters moves in next door before their sale’s escrow period is over, the Radners try to cover it up. But since teen women are smarter than teen guys, their plans don’t work. Eventually their former nemesis, Zac Efron’s ridiculously buff Teddy, joins them to do battle with the sorority’s head mean girl (Chloë Grace Moretz).
There’s a lot of plot to set up, and some of Moretz’s house sisters don’t get enough screen time. But the writers find a nifty way to resolve the story, and in addition to the returning Ike Barinholtz and Carla Gallo, as Mac and Kelly’s best friends, and Lisa Kudrow’s neurotic school dean, there are fun apperances by Hannibal Buress, Selena Gomez, Abbi Jacobson and, as competing realtors, Liz Cackowski and Billy Eichner.
It’s probably the most queer-friendly mainstream film of the summer, and look out for the Cosby joke.
