Not so bad neighbours

LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR Zac Efron and Seth Rogen star in 'Bad Neighbours 2'.

Cinema
Ciara Galvin

IT’S very rare these days when there isn’t a sequel to a film, well, other then those super arty ones. Hollywood bosses are seeking any excuse to bleed another few bob from cinema goers if the first film did remotely well at the box office.
Hence why we have ‘Bad Neighbours 2’, a follow up to, yes, you guessed it, ‘Bad Neighbours’. The 2014 film was a commercial success, grossing over 270 million dollars worldwide. And the big wigs saw dollar signs.
Having only seen snippets of the first film, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect from this, but I did have a feeling it was going to follow a similar slapstick, crude college humour type route. So what you get from Bad Neighbours 2 is an ‘Old School’, ‘Van Wilder’ meets ‘War of the Roses’ type film.
Seth Rogan and Rose Byrne return in this as the Radners (Mac and Kelly) the couple who were terrorised by Teddy (Zac Efron) and the rest of his hooligan fraternity in the first film.  
This time, things aren’t much different and the Radners are faced with another breed of party animals, this time, a sorority. And who is schooling them in the art of partying? Teddy, the rather sad Van Wilder character who has had to come to terms with the rest of his friends moving off into adulthood.
Efron this time moves to be on the Radners’ side after being deemed an old person by the ladies of ‘Kappa Nu’, led by Chloë Grace Moretz. And so, the premise of the film is basically adults versus students, again.
For the most part this film follows the expected crude college genre - innuendo, drugs, sexual references and obscenities, but, the film does carry a message, albeit a message sprinkled among all the crass jokes.
It seems it is actually a rule among US colleges that sororities aren’t allowed to have parties within the ‘Greek system’ and only fraternities are and here the film presents it as an outlandish and outdated rule. It’s not that the film is immensely pro-feminist, but credit where credit is due, it provides a deeper message than a lot of these films do.
Efron’s character is surprisingly really enjoyable, and no, not for the ridiculous abs but for his ability to be totally self deprecating. Taking his shirt off at every available opportunity gets some laughs and he doesn’t come across as being a total eejit.
If you offend easily, maybe this isn’t for you. If you’re
expecting a thought provoking analysis of why women are prejudiced in various facets of society - you will be left disappointed. However, if you fancy some brain candy that does try to go off the path just a little, then Bad Neighbours 2 to isn’t a terrible choice.

Rating 6 out of 10