Good news for fans of the original Bad Neighbours all the jokes you liked in the first one are back in it’s lukewarm follow up.
Bad Neighbours 2 is of course the sequel to the original Bad Neighbours and is pretty much the exact same film as the first, with the genders flipped.
So this time it’s a hardcore sorority, led by Shelby (Chloe Grace-Moretz), upsetting Mac (Seth Rogen) and Kelly Radner (Rose Byrne) as opposed to a wild fraternity.
Returning to help the struggling family deal with their new nuisance neighbours is Zac Efron’s Teddy, who’s lost his way in life after the events of the first film.
Surprisingly, considering the usual way comedy sequels turn out, the movie wasn’t a complete stinker, even managing to warm my icy heart enough to tease a begrudging chuckle or two out of me.
Unfortunately there’s nothing fresh in the film and it’s a just a stale retelling of the original (the air-bag joke’s back again) but for fan’s of the first there’s something here.
The cast are all likeable, Rogen’s got his stoner dad schtick down to a fine art now, and the relationship between him and Byrne is believable enough with the pair having a decent amount of chemistry.
Chloe Grace-Mortez is fine as the leader of the sorority it’s just a shame that the rest of the girls feel a bit flat, especially Beth (Elizabeth Feldstein) who felt like a less interesting version of Fat Amy from Pitch Perfect.
Zac Efron manages to be the highlight, and continues to be one of the most likeable actors in Hollywood, being both funny and charming in almost every scene he’s in.
Perhaps most interestingly though is that in the third act the film manges to take a detour, breaking from it’s predecessors path with a surprisingly feminist message.
The film basically says that girls shouldn’t have to change who they are to fit in and that real friends stick by each other regardless, which is a nice message to finish on.
Ultimately Bad Neighbours 2 is a diluted version of it’s predecessor but it muddles through on it’s bankable cast and semi-aspiring plot that fans of the original will like.
It’a just a shame there’s nothing here to love.
More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.