When it was announced that Hollywood was producing a big screen adaptation of the 80s teen soap opera 21 Jump Street, there was a collective groan from critics and audiences who had become burnt out on the lifeless TV adaptations which had infected cinemas like a plague. But, when directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller unleashed their vision of 21 Jump Street in 2012, naysayers were abruptly silenced. Actually, they were louder than ever, laughing uncontrollably at the absurd comedy which was actually a clever dissection of pop culture adaptations.
Now, Lord and Miller have returned with 22 Jump Street (a title whose justification is handled perfectly in the film) and, almost unbelievably, the second film is funnier and more satisfying than the first. The Jump Street movies set themselves apart from other mindless TV adaptations (I’m looking at you, A-Team) by letting the audience in on the joke. Lord and Miller recognize that an adaptation of 21 Jump Street is unnecessary – and that a sequel is ludicrous – so they poke fun at the very concept at every chance they get. This meta approach to filmmaking has served them well and shown they are possibly the most inventive filmmaking team working today.
After bringing down a drug ring while working undercover posing as high school students, officers Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) are back on the job once again. Their assignment: bring down a drug ring while working undercover posing as college students. (Wait. That sounds familiar.) Schmidt and Jenko enroll in Metro City State College and attempt to discover who is selling a new designer drug called WHY-PHY which led to one young woman’s death.
While in the first episode, er, movie Schmidt had an amazing experience at school – hanging with the popular kids, getting the girl, etc. – this time it’s Jenko’s turn to be big man on campus. He joins the school’s football team to get closer to star quarterback Zook (Wyatt Russell), who may be the school’s dealer. But, Jenko slowly begins to lose focus on his assignment as the college life draws him in. Meanwhile, Schmidt is left to navigate college by himself, including the very casual hook up culture embodied by Maya (Amber Stevens), a laid back art student with whom he begins a relationship.
Hilarity and chaos ensue and the plot, via a very intentional choice by the directors, becomes superfluous. Audiences are going to 22 Jump Street to see Hill and Tatum as the best buddy cop duo since Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson in Die Hard With A Vengeance. Due to a much larger budget, Lord and Miller crank the action to near-parody heights, almost compulsively spending every dollar of their studio windfall as if they were in their own remake of Brewster’s Millions.
Somehow 22 Jump Street, which is practically an exact replica of the first movie, never feels stale or repetitive. Hill and Tatum play the characters with as much or more energy than the first time and the jokes are even better. The movie’s humor is split between witty dialogue between characters, hilarious visual comedy and sly winks at the audience regarding the needlessness of the movie’s existence. Adding to the hilarity is an expanded role for Ice Cube as the angry black police captain and young actors Jillian Bell and The Lucas Brothers who come damn close to stealing the movie from Hill and Tatum.
Only NBC’s Community and the short-lived-then-revived Arrested Development before it have executed this level of intellectual meta-comedy. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller continue to turn out impressive work as they dissect just what it is audiences want and expect from Hollywood.
Grade: A
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