22 Jump Street: Its the Same Film…Same Case.

Hello everybody! Today we have the sequel to 21 Jump Street, 22 Jump Street.

22 JUMP STREET

STARRING: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Peter Stormare, Ice Cube

DIRECTOR: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller

GENRE: Action, Comedy

YEAR: 2014

COUNTRY: United States

After making their way through high school (twice), big changes are in store for officers Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) when they go deep undercover at a local college. But when Jenko meets a kindred spirit on the football team, and Schmidt infiltrates the bohemian art major scene, they begin to question their partnership. Now they don’t have to just crack the case – they have to figure out if they can have a mature relationship. If these two overgrown adolescents can grow from freshmen into real men, college might be the best thing that ever happened to them.

22 Jump Street is an amazing sequel about how bad sequels are. This is a movie about how pointless most sequels are. It constantly points out that sequels recycle material from the previous movie and give people the exact same thing over again since that’s what they want. It’s hard to imagine a movie so full with references, but 22 Jump Street is packed to the brim. Normally this would cause for a movie not to be able to breathe, but directors Lord and Miller, screenwriters Michael Bacall, Oren Uziel, and Rodney Rothman, and stars Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum are always creating their own air. The movie doesn’t get weighed down by all the references, it lives by them. And what fantastically varied references they are, too.

The strong writing and direction aside, 22 Jump Street would have not worked nearly as well if it weren’t for its two stars Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum. Hill has been more of a known comedic quantity for some time, and this is one of his better comedic performances. He continues to be one of the best comedians at being completely awkward, and this works very well in the college setting. Tatum on the other hand has blossomed into a huge comedic force. He’s quickly become every bit as good as Hill, and this really comes down to the fact that he plays the oblivious person so well.

Many of the same beats follow, just with the two roles reversed, and that’s exactly what sequels usually deliver. The difference here, for both better and worse, is that Lord, Miller and friends know better. It would have been nice to see the filmmakers’ awareness of movie stereotypes and tropes extend to the burly Schmidt’s romantic pairing with a bone-thin beauty. Stevens’ performance is fine here, but maybe Schmidt could have found romantic entanglement with someone less traditional, more realistic and still gorgeous. They exist. I promise. Awareness of sequel tropes doesn’t lead to changes; less emotional satisfaction due to repetitiveness; doesn’t care about dumb plot points; meta could have been taken further.

PROS:

•  Hilarious satire about sequels.
• Channing Tatum, Ice Cube, Jonah Hill performances.
• References…references…references!

CONS:

• Insanely meta.
• Few too stupid and silly moments.

SCORE: 8.5 / 10

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