Sorority Blues

What’s worse than going up against a houseful of misbehaving and hard-partying frat boys?  Taking on a houseful of hormonal sorority girls gone wild, of course.  The sequel to 2014’s edgy R-rated comedy-of-embarrassment hit ‘Neighbors’ (reviewed here: http://moviesaccordingtodave.blogspot.com/2014/05/bad-fences.html) pits parents Mac (Seth Rogen) and Kelly (Rose Byrne) Radner against a sorority led by spunky marijuana-smoking college freshman Shelby (Chloё Grace Moretz, much grown up since her ‘Hit Girl’ days but still cute as a button), who took a stand for gender equality by starting her own independent sorority after she discovered from Selena Gomez that the sorority at which she was pledging is not allowed to throw its own parties and can only attend frat parties.

 

Like its predecessor, ‘Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising’ banks on the hilarious situations that arise from conflict when Mac and Kelly embarked on their “anti-fun” campaign against college kids who just want to party.  This includes the usual pleading at first to “keep it down” before escalating to intimidation tactics and outright sabotaging of the sorority’s fundraising efforts by stealing their weed. With the help of their partners-in-crime Jimmy (Ike Barinholtz) and Paula (Carla Gallo) as well as former frat boy-turned-ally Teddy (Zac Efron), the Radners pulled out all the stops in their campaign to evict the sorority girls-next-door at all costs.

 

While the spiraling ‘Revenge of the Nerds’ premise isn’t as consistently funny this second time around, the saving grace of ‘Sorority Rising’ is that it maintained the heart and spirit of the original.  Because when the dust finally settles in the ‘Civil War’ between these neighbors (does the poster below remind you of a certain recent ‘Captain America’ poster?), they still managed to mend fences and find common ground in the end.

Grade: B