I’m
generally not a big fan of comedy movies, preferring to stick to the small
screen where shows like Parks and Recreation
and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, as well
as political talk shows like Last Week
Tonight With John Oliver and The
Daily Show With John Stewart are more my thing. However, every now and
again I do decide to venture into comedies on the big screen and it can
occasionally have mixed results (see: last year’s Bad Neighbours). But one thing’s for sure, 22 Jump Street is certainly one of the more positive experiences
with movie comedy that I’ve had in a while, offering a great, delightful meta that
poked fun at 21 Jump Street (which I
haven’t seen), and served up a wonderfully entertaining 112 minutes.
Although
they have made their way through High School (Twice), successfully, cops Jenko
(Channing Tatum) and Schmitt (Jonah Hill) find themselves thrust back into
their undercover roles as two College Students in an attempt to bust a drug
group. However, once they start settling into College, Jenko and Schmitt start
to become separated from each other, with Jenko finding a home in the football
field whilst Schmitt infiltrates the bohemian art-major scene. This
delightfully fun set-up for a plot allows for some very funny jokes, helped
along by some excellent chemistry between the two lead actors, as Tatum and
Hill really are one of the main selling points of this movie. It just wouldn’t
work as well if their chemistry wasn’t so good, and it’s great to see that they’re
on top form.
The
jokes are hilarious, and more than once I was laughing throughout the movie.
Starting with an opening sequence where Schmitt gets an Octopus stuck on his
face, the fun adventures of the two cops continues from there, with some fresh
jokes that don’t feel like your typical comedy. It’s very meta as well, but
despite the fact that 22 Jump Street pokes
a lot of fun at the first movie, it’s still, as I found out, pretty accessible.
There’s even a “Previously On..” segment at the beginning which is something that
you’d expect from your typical CBS procedural, not from a live action movie. But
thanks to the genre, it works, and Lego
Movie directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller really once again knock it out
of the park, making it two successful hits in a row. Based on what I’ve seen
here, I can’t wait to see what they can come up with if they are directing the
upcoming Flash movie, like they’re
rumoured to be. With these two movies they’ve also certainly earned a spot on
the list of directors that I’ll probably watch anything by as well, with some
really impressive stuff going on here.
There’s
never any moments in 22 Jump Street where
it really feels dull and at the same time there aren’t any jokes that don’t
work or feel out of place. The tone of the movie is well matched and the plot
is simple, but fun, with some interesting secondary cast (Parks and Recreation
alum Nick Offerman crops up as Police Chief Hardy, and the New Count Vertigo, Peter
Stormare on Arrow plays the
antagonist, The Ghost).that really help make this movie tick. The only negative
part that I’d really attribute to 22 Jump
Street is that the antagonist doesn’t really seem to be that well developed,
but The Ghost isn’t really the main focus of the story, instead putting the
spotlight firmly on Jenko and Schmitt.
Oh,
and did I mention how good that end credits sequence was? It pokes a lot of fun
at comedy movies with endless sequels and offers some great ideas at what to
come, with it looking as though 22 Jump
Street seems to be the last entry in the franchise (although that said, I
did recently hear rumours of a bizarre Jump
Street/Men in Black Crossover planned, so I could be wrong), which is a
shame because if Phil Lord and Chris Miller were directing, I’d totally watch
the hell out of the sequels that they presented us with. But at least I haven’t
yet watched 21 Jump Street, so I can
go back and check that out.
VERDICT: 9/10
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