They say your college years are the best of your life. But after spending two movies in deranged stand-offs with nubile, rowdy representatives of the Greek system, I doubt that Neighbors 2's Mac and Kelly Radner (Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne) have many misty water-colored memories left of their own higher ed experience. Their losses are the gain of fans of beer-soaked physical comedy; Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising pits the young parents again against the co-eds next door, this time a drunk and disorderly sorority led by ruthless leader Shelby (Chloe Grace Moretz). Zac Efron returns as the Radners' Neighbors nemesis Teddy; and the rest of the cast is filled out with equally funny people. Just like smoke always accompanies fire, where there are funny people filming a comedy together, there must be hysterical outtakes.
Neighbors 2 is available on Digital HD Sep. 6 and on DVD and Blu-Ray on Sept. 20. The special features that come with the DVD and the download include a Line-O-Rama featurette. In the exclusive clip below, you'll see Rogen, Byrne, Moretz, and more members of the cast try out line readings and improvise jokes during filming, sometimes successfully, sometimes...less than successfully. This sneak peek goes to show that the movie's editors probably had their pick of punchlines for several of the funniest scenes in Neighbors 2. Realistically, I think I could watch the uncut dailies of this movie and never be bored.
I'm forever pleased that releasing outtakes is a fairly common practice, especially with comedies. You have to figure: if you put funny people in a room together and let them loose on some material, you're going to get more good stuff than the actual movie can contain. Even when the actors break, these clips are gold. Laughter is contagious, as anyone who's ever lost it along with a Saturday Night Live performer knows. I especially like seeing Lisa Kudrow throw out ideas as Dean Gladstone here, because she's an improv pro. Byrne and Rogen get their moments too, especially when they talk about their daughter's nontraditional choice in toys.
This Neighbors 2 special features clip confirms what I already suspected to be true: filming a Neighbors movie is a complete blast, and the movie's set is a relaxed playground for comic actors. If these are the clips that made it to the DVD and digital download, imagine what laughs were left on the cutting room floor.
Images: Universal Pictures; Giphy
