Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising
Universal Pictures | Release Date: May 20, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
58
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 39 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
15
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago TribuneKatie WalshMay 20, 2016
With Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, they've flipped the script, creating a feminist party classic that's completely current and doesn't skimp on any of the wild humor. It's also even better than its predecessor. Read full review
91
IndieWireDavid EhrlichMay 17, 2016
One of the greatest comedy sequels ever made. Read full review
90
Village VoiceApril WolfeMay 19, 2016
The complexity of feminism for young girls today is displayed with rare hilarity and insight. Read full review
83
The Film StageMichael SnydelMay 18, 2016
Even as it pushes into the cozy familiarity of slow-motion party montage, Neighbors 2 can’t help but feel refreshingly new in its vision of the college movie as something unashamed, vibrant, and urgent. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsEdward DouglasMay 18, 2016
With the added layer of humor that comes with switching genders, Neighbors 2 ends up offering even more laughs than the original movie. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Johanna Schneller May 19, 2016
They deliver precisely enough guffaws to give you your money’s worth, with a couple of sweet moments about how daughters break their parents’ hearts tossed in. I guess they had to hold something back for "Neighbors 3: Suburbia, a.k.a. The Cat Catches the Tinfoil." Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaMay 19, 2016
Rogen and Efron's characters find a novel new use for automobile airbags, too. These guys are geniuses. Read full review
75
USA TodayBrian TruittMay 19, 2016
With Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, the raunchy college comedy is graduating to smart feminist commentary. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerMay 18, 2016
Efron imbues his handsome-dope routine with such nuance that Teddy is not only funny but also touching in his sincere desire for brotherhood, in short supply postgraduation. What could have been simplistic self-parody becomes a genuinely, almost confusingly terrific performance. Read full review
75
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeMay 5, 2016
Neighbors 2 never lags, and the laughs keep coming, even though they’re coming from a fairly familiar place. If that’s all you want, that’s what you get. But, hey at least you get it, which is more than you can say for most sequels. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesRebecca KeeganMay 19, 2016
Title IX has finally hit the college party movie genre and the result is just as goofily funny and mind-bendingly stupid as its testosterone-driven predecessors. Read full review
70
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisMay 19, 2016
Proudly crass and amiably dumb, Nicholas Stoller’s gag-crammed sequel essentially takes the bones of the 2014 original and gives them a gender flip. Read full review
70
VarietyGuy LodgeMay 5, 2016
The film has a knowingly conflicted engagement with millennial-generation feminism that freshens its outlook even as it unevenly rejigs many of its predecessor’s gags. Still, while a subtly clawed Chloë Grace Moretz proves a worthy new foil, it’s Zac Efron’s tragicomic anatomy of a dudebro that remains this series’ sharpest asset. Read full review
69
The VergeTasha RobinsonJun 3, 2016
Comedy is rarely sympathetic to its victims, but by letting all the major characters serve as each other's karma engines, Stoller and the other writers create a hilarious world where everyone can be equally awful, and equally heroic, and equally ridiculous. Read full review
67
The PlaylistOliver LytteltonMay 6, 2016
At its best, the film becomes something winningly subversive. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTom RussoMay 19, 2016
One of the best things about the movie, aside from its screwily positive message, is the blithely freewheeling yet clever way that Rogen and company assemble the story’s puzzle pieces. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversMay 19, 2016
Rogen and Byrne are crazy fun company. Read full review
63
Washington PostStephanie MerryMay 19, 2016
In the end, the plot is the least interesting part of the movie. One-upmanship gets old fast, but evolved, of-the-moment comedy helps make a stale story fresh. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineChristopher GrayMay 18, 2016
The film's expected rehash of recent pop-culture totems is accompanied by a novel attention to millennial-centric debates about entitlement and identity politics. Read full review
60
Time OutCath ClarkeMay 20, 2016
Just funny enough to not feel like a retread. Read full review
60
Time OutCath ClarkeMay 20, 2016
Just funny enough to not feel like a retread. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 19, 2016
There’s a weird attempt at feminism here that doesn’t quite fly – basically it boils down to young women having every bit as much right to do bong hits all day and night as young men do – but at least there is an attempt. Read full review
60
CineVueMartyn ConterioMay 5, 2016
Bad Neighbours 2 is a smart and worthy continuation of this comedic battle of the age-groups with a cracking takedown of "super rape-y" frat boy culture, where every themed party is 'bros and hoes', and makes a stand for female empowerment, all the while serving up belly laughs, rehashed-but-still-brilliant airbag gags and feminist-inspired gross-out acts. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattMay 18, 2016
You’ll probably laugh hard more than once; Sorority Rising is still rich in bikinis and bong rips and boner jokes. It just doesn’t have much heart. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMay 19, 2016
That’s all it is, a little bit funny. Read full review
50
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallMay 19, 2016
Despite its overt feminism, Neighbors 2 makes the sorority unravel when its guiding man leaves. It's one of several mixed messages in the screenplay, possibly due to having five writers' fingerprints on it. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovMay 18, 2016
The twist – and it’s a smart, effective one to be sure – is that this time it’s not a bunch of beergasming dudebros making life hell for the Radners, but an off-campus sorority led by Moretz’s feminist-slash-party powerhouse blonde, Shelby. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreMay 18, 2016
It’s got just about enough laughs, but there’s so much more that the Script by Committee wants to shoehorn in, like female empowerment, bad parenting passed off as “doing our best” just like our parents, gay marriage and the incredibly sexist college Greek system, a relic of the “Animal House” era that remains as “rapey” as ever. Read full review
42
ConsequenceAllison ShoemakerMay 20, 2016
Where the sequel falters is where its uneven predecessor, which is both less ambitious and undeniably funnier, excels: its ostensible villains just aren’t very interesting. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottMay 19, 2016
Once it gets past its lull-prone first half, Neighbors 2 tries to inject a little heart into the proceedings -- which was the secret weapon of the original -- but even those end up feeling stale and phoned-in. Read full review
40
The TelegraphTim RobeyMay 5, 2016
Like most comedy sequels, it’s also content to dig out the same old punchbowl and dilute the dregs. Read full review
40
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganMay 5, 2016
Neighbors: Sorority Rising turns out to be an uneasy watch, awash with unconvincing performances, unfunny stereotypes, and dubious gross-out gags. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeMay 5, 2016
In their awkward attempt to shoehorn these kids into the first pic's formula, Stoller and his writing collaborators care far less about creating believable characters than getting to the next laugh. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 5, 2016
This pretty routine follow-up has some decent material and amiable bad taste, heavily diluted with gallons of very ordinary sequel product: more of the same. Read full review
38
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMay 20, 2016
The follow-up proves not only to be creatively bankrupt but a disappointment on all levels and thereby tarnishes the perception of its predecessor. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyMay 19, 2016
The bad news is that, as movies go, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising barely qualifies as one. Read full review
38
New York PostKyle SmithMay 19, 2016
It’s kind of cute but mostly just awkward, somewhere between watching bros who slept through French class trying to work their game in Nice and endless CBS sitcoms about nutty guys ruled by exasperated, boring women. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMay 18, 2016
I couldn’t wait for this movie to end. Read full review
25
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenMay 19, 2016
Mark this one down as a sequel that should never have been made. Read full review
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