22 Jump Street | Movie Review

After botching a relatively simple sting operation with some fairly poor undercover choices, Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) are reassigned back to Jump Street (this time 22 Jump Street because they moved across the street, GET IT?!). Captain Dickson (Ice Cube) lives up to his promise from the previous film and assigns the two worst cops in town to college in an effort to bring down a new designer drug connection.

If you were a fan of 21 Jump Street, you can ease back because you will assuredly like 22 Jump Street. Even though the film offers very little new, the chemistry between Tatum and Hill is undeniable and genuinely hilarious. Their camaraderie is that rare mix of yin and yang that most buddy films miss by either a hair or a mile, and these guys get it just right. By dropping in a clever subplot where the pair ‘break-up’ due to newfound attractions in other areas, we are treated to numerous lover’s spats that take the buddy-cop genre into new levels of equality.

Unfortunately, this also contributes to my one complaint about the film: There are just too many dull spots. Jonah Hill, for all of his best efforts, is simply not nearly as entertaining to watch when Tatum leaves the frame. Whether this is in the writing or just the character’s natural development, anytime that Schmidt is moping around on his own, the film drags to a screeching halt.

Tatum, on the other hand, seems to completely enjoy and embrace playing the insanely moronic Jenko and he remains entertaining up until the last second of screen time. From start to finish, Tatum does everything asked of him and he takes Jenko to the hilt. Most actors would not mock their image as drastically as Tatum does. Instead, Tatum wears that humility square on his chest like a badge of honor, daring critics to come at him, bro. Rare is the non-comedian the funnier of a comedic duo like this…and Tatum pulls it off with nary a smile.

Ice Cube even gets an opportunity to yuk it up, as his character is thrown a few more scenes and even his own arc this time. Cube is known for being the heavy in almost everything he does, that furious eyebrow his acting staple, but here he gets to loosen up and be one of the guys. He also continues to show why he is the perfect actor to shepherd these knuckleheads through their caseload despite their obvious lack of skill.

Sequels are the inevitable curse to successful films and no movie in recent memory seems to be more self-aware of this principle than 22 Jump Street. From the early dialogue referencing the exploding budget until the closing credits montage, directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (The LEGO Movie) fully embrace the ridiculous concept of how repetitive most sequels tend to be.

They also spend too much time suffering from the same rules they continue to mock. 22 Jump Street resembles the first film so closely, you might have a hard time deciphering which film came first. This does not make the film less enjoyable, it just makes it harder to appreciate the sequel humor and fourth-wall jokes when so many of the mistakes they keep laughing at, they also keep repeating.

22 Jump Street has an infectious pair of less-than-stellar cops and when Hill and Tatum are onscreen together, the movie works. Too much time apart and a little too much self-deprecating humor aside, this is still the kind of R-rated summer fun most of us are looking for.

If $10 is the full price of admission, 22 Jump Street is worth $6.50

 

Aaron Peterson
The Hollywood Outsider