“Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising” is a sequel to the very successful 2014 comedy “Neighbors,” and of course comedy sequels are classically bad. In the 2014 hit, Zac Efron and his fraternity move next door to Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne’s characters, and their partying antics starts a battle between the neighbors. In this sequel, Byrne and Rogen are now selling their house, and the buyers have a month to change their mind on buying. This time, a new sorority led by Chloe Grace Moretz moves next door. Sounds like the exact same as the first one, right?

Well, not really. Surprisingly, “Neighbors 2” is much less safe and expected than you would think. Basically, this new sorority wants to throw their own parties, because unfairly, sororities can’t technically throw parties. So these girls want to get away from the sexist “Bros and Hoes” themed parties at every fraternity. It constantly makes fun of misogynists and sexists, pointing out and ridiculing their stupidity. This subversive message carries throughout the entire film, which is very respectable and surprising for a movie to do. At some points, it does kind of beat you over the head with this theme, but I can’t really fault that because it’s such an important message to get across.

Perhaps even more surprising though is the revelation of Zac Efron. He has some serious comedic acting chops, and he absolutely steals the movie. He is hilarious, and his character actually has a pretty interesting dramatic arc throughout the movie. He is basically a washed up college student watching all of his friends move on and live great lives. He switches sides (sorority or parents) throughout, and his interactions with both make great comedic moments. Rose Byrne is good, Seth Rogen just plays himself at this point, and comedian Ike Barinholtz is hilarious. I found Chloe Grace Moretz to be kind of annoying, but overall she acted pretty well.

As with many comedies, there are plenty of conveniences and lapses of logic in the plot, and this sequel is slightly less cohesive of a story than the original. But what matters more is the payoff—the comedy. And this movie definitely is funny. It has a lot of great laugh-out-loud moments and it is definitely worth it to experience those in a theatre. A couple more great jokes would have made it a great comedy, but it’s not quite there.

Ultimately, “Neighbors 2” is a satisfying comedy sequel that doesn’t quite live up to the original, but has a great subversive and progressive message, generally good acting, and a lot of big laughs.

Running time: 92 minutes

Rated: R

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

“Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising is released on May 20, 2016