Caffeinated Clint
Rock-hard abs, discarded bong water & trio of exasperating iTeens feature in the latest addition to the often-worrisome, usually franchise-destroying category : ‘hit comedies that green light sequels so quickly they remember the players but forget the play book.’
And like “Porky’s II : The Next Day”, “American Pie 2”, “The Hangover Part II”, and “Horrible Bosses 2” (we’ll give “Revenge of the Nerds II : Nerds in Paradise” a pass because the studio at least had the decency to wait three years before producing a follow-up), Nicholas Stoller’s sequel to surprise hit “Bad Neighbors” will ultimately be best remembered for its ability to effortlessly regroup the A-list cast of its original (unlike “Nerds II”, which couldn’t convince Anthony Edwards seconds would be just as tasty – especially not when he’d just been offered the lead role as a hotshot doctor on a prime-time TV series) into coming back for.. well, more of the same.
The toilet tissue the film was written on likely went something like this : Seth Rogen & Rose Byrne’s characters (the olds) still live next door to the house that use to play home to Zac Efron’s wild fraternity – but he’s now gone. While the olds are preparing for the arrival of their second child, and gearing up to sell their house, Efron’s rehabilitated frat packer is longing to simply be of value to someone, somewhere again.
When he gets wind that a trio of girls (the leader played by a sleepish, miscast Chloe Grace Moretz) want to start their own fraternity – because sororities aren’t allowed to throw parties – he talks them into buying his old place of debauchery. He even plays mentor to them for a while.
And yes, the olds next door are equal parts mad and frightened as history starts to repeat itself.
It’s not too long before Efron and his McRibs port themselves over to ‘the other side’ though, where Rogen and Byrne discover a savvy, unlikely accomplice who’ll do anything to shut down the girls next door down.
P.S Make sure to include joke about Rogen & Byrne’s kid playing with a dildo.
And though the faces remain the same (even the supporting cast of the original return for appearances here – clearly only for the pay check, because they’ve nothing to do! Right Dave Franco!?), their reason for being has. While the first film was absolutely ridiculous at times, and relied largely on the crude and crass to get yaks, it was at least grounded in some kind of reality. You could, most of the time, relate to the respective plight of each character – understanding where they were coming from, why they were behaving why they were behaving, and why marijuana was so clearly important and necessary to everyone. But here, any sort of realism or character motivation is thrown out the window in favour of a sequence of zany, meekly funny gags– usually revolving around drugs or sex toys (and don’t get me started on the nonsensical iPhone joke that goes down like a lead balloon). Most moments will spur a smile, but unlike the original (which had the great “De Niro theme party” moment) there’s no big belly laughs to be had.
Let’s shut this shit down.
