I remember watching Neighbors (2014) and not liking it enough to write anything worthwhile. I wasn’t in love with the Neighbors 2 – Sorority Rising trailer either, at first, but it grew on me after a week.

Fast forward to now having seen the sequel, the film suffers from the dreaded sequel disease of repetition. Though certainly not to the levels that My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 did this year, ‘suffer’ it certainly does.

As per the original movie, this one too is directed by Nicholas Stoller. A second bit of good news is that none of the performances by the stars including Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne, Zac Efron, Dave Franco, or Chloë Grace Moretz were bad. I just wasn’t much amused. In fact, I’m certain that most of my laughing happened during the Neighbors 2 trailer.

Try as I must, I managed to find something I enjoyed about the movie and that is the message(s) at the end – however forced they may have felt.

From here on, the Neighbors 2 experience is going to be placed firmly behind me. Especially, as I get busy re-watching my favourite of Rogen’s work;  Pineapple Express (2008), This Is The End (2013) and The Interview (2014). There’s also the wonderfully inappropriate Sausage Party (2016) to get excited and hopeful about.

I’m starting to wonder why it is that I seem to find myself enjoying Rogen’s Newer work less and less. I wasn’t even able to make it through the first third of The Night Before (2015) before needing to bail because I didn’t buy into any of the character’s actions. Am I simply getting too old and therefore no longer the target market? Have I watched so many of his movies, or, movies in general that very little is new to me anymore? Has my taste altered that much?

All I know at this point is that whatever the answer, thank goodness for the early work.

Happy Film Loving,

G