While it was a critical and commercial success, the world wasn’t exactly clamoring for a sequel to Bad Neighbours. The trailers for Bad Neighbours 2 suggested more of the same, and it didn’t appear like this film would be able to provide any more than a few laughs. However, this may be one of those rare comedy sequels that surpasses the original, by being surprisingly sweet and subversive.

This time around, the action focuses on a sorority set up by Shelby (Chloë Grace Moretz) who is disgusted at both the nature of fraternity parties, and the fact that sororities aren’t allowed to throw their own. Naturally, their sorority is established next door to Mac (Seth Rogen) and Kelly (Rose Byrne) who are in the process of selling their home, and don’t want their prospective buyers scared off by having a sorority as neighbours. What ensues is a comedic duel similar to that of the first film, only with surprisingly more substance.

Moving from a fraternity to a sorority may just seem like the natural way in which to progress this story, but rather than just being a superficial change in service of repetition, it allows the filmmakers to critique the environment they celebrated in the first. Early on in the film, our new characters attend a party that could have easily been one featured in its predecessor, but rather than being presented as something enjoyable and enviable, it is shot in a manner which truly displays what a threatening environment such parties can be. The real-life fact that sororities aren’t allowed to throw their own parties gives the film, and its characters, a mission statement that carries the film through what could otherwise have been a derivative rerun of the first. At times, the film seems to be an apology for the first, and for much of Seth Rogen’s filmography.

Despite this apologetic look at frat culture, the new female characters led by Chloë Grace Moretz are never given comedic material as strong as that given to Zac Efron’s Teddy, and he, as well as the other characters from the original, remain the focus of the film. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as Teddy and his friends are developed in ways that are both amusing and sweet, sustaining the characters and contributing towards the film’s sense of social consciousness. Whilst the film is on the side of the girls’ fight for their right to party, it could have given them some stronger comedic material along the way.

Overall, the film struggles to top the comedic set pieces of the first, and frequently falls back on gross-out humour to get its laughs. However, that being said, it refreshingly doesn’t attempt to redo all of the first film’s best material and still delivers plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. A chase sequence set to Kanye West’s, ‘Black Skinhead’ is a genuinely exciting piece of action filmmaking from director Nicholas Stoller, that will give some of this summer’s blockbusters a run for their money, and visually surpasses anything not just in the first, but in most films of this ilk.

Bad Neighbours 2 manages to get many laughs out of smaller character moments, particularly when Zac Efron’s Teddy becomes something of a second child to Mac and Kelly. In fact, it is in these moments, where the film is deceptively endearing; a moment late on where Mac and Kelly enjoy the company of their newborn child is particularly affecting.

Bad Neighbours 2 certainly won’t win any awards for subtlety and originality. But there is a sensitivity to it, which makes this perfectly paced 90 minute film slightly more substantial than expected.