Review of 22 Jump Street (2014) by Thomas B — 01 Feb 2015

Phil Lord and Chris Miller had a heck of a challenge to tackle with 22 Jump Street. As a follow-up to one of the big surprises of 2012, Jump Street had a lot to live up to. Which is a little tough, considering an expectation level of almost zero that preceded 21 Jump Street. There was nothing to live up to with the first, no level to maintain. And after setting an incredibly high bar for themselves back then, it's amazing that 22 Jump Street comes off as well as it does in comparison.

After becoming a pair of heroes with their high-school based bust of the HFS drug ring last time around, Schmidt and Jenko are set on the trail of another set of drug dealers, this time at college.

The biggest surprise of the huge surprise that was 21 Jump Street wasn't really the jokes, it was the relationships we got to see form throughout. Yes there was an incredible sequence where the two guys got high and went insane, but there was also the pair-up of Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill which brought a huge amount of heart to the movie. But that was the buddy cop beginning. The sequels are always so much worse. They can turn into parodies of themselves, they can fail to balance their characters, they can just plain run out of ideas. So what does 22 Jump Street do? Roasts every single sequel cliche and pitfall it can possibly fit in. From the mission itself that their chief hands them (Exactly the same as last time!) to the end credits, 22 Jump Street cranks up the self-awareness, pushing it even further than the original. It's a smart move, due to the lampshading effect that blunts the fact that at many points in time, it is an extremely similar movie to the first one. Jonah Hill meets a girl and starts up a relationship with her, the two partners come to grief over the fact that one of them is accepted by a group while the other is not, there's a TV star cameo towards the end. But the way that these issues are tackled elevate it above being the same movie. Firstly, the role reversals work extremely well, as Jonah Hill's almost shunning of Channing Tatum's character the first time around almost made the character unbearable at time. In 22, however, having Channing Tatum's Jenko feeling torn between two worlds that he very clearly loves is gives the film a situation that it's far easier to connect with. The way the two partners are torn apart and put back together and everything that happens to them in between is really well done and gives the movie the same sort of repeat viewing status that the first one managed. And then of course there are the gags. For all the heart that's packed in here, the jokes are what you pay for, and boy does it deliver. Running jokes throughout the movie, non-sequiturs, viciously sharp sparring matches, physical comedy and one of the best Annie Hall parodies I've ever seen, 22 Jump Street brings the humour in the same sort of frenzied, always surprising way that 21 Jump Street did. Some of the jokes come from knowing these characters a little better now, but they don't rely on prior knowledge, they're just damn funny.

A lot of the credit has to go to the directing team behind the scene. Lord and Miller seem to have an absolute authority on the way a joke lands in a cinema. It's not just the script that's razor sharp with gags, it's the way Lord and Miller stage them. Would Jenko chanting about Schmidt's sexual activity while dancing around inside 22 Jump Street be funny regardless? Of course. But the way it's staged, the way we see each reaction, the way it's cut together, the microwave *ding* just beforehand, Lord and Miller find a way to wring every conceivable laugh out of moments like these. And the way they're able to seamlessly incorporate action with the laughs is first class. I don't know that there are two many directors working who can do it quite like these two can. Jenko's fight on the beach for instance. The whole time you're marvelling at Channing Tatum beating up a group of guys with come random chick, you're laughing your ass off at the way he's doing it. It's more than just a happy accident, despite the obvious improvisational nature of the work. This is two directors working at the height of their powers, even more so than their work in The Lego Movie.

This whole franchised is balanced some improbable legs, including the two sets behind the camera, but two of the most important players are the leads, Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill. They're a perfect pairing, each one weighted just right against the other, each one with strengths and weaknesses, each one amazing at what they do. Without Tatum's beating heart of the film, Jonah Hill's sarcastic antics would become too much. Without Hill's rapid-fire speech and absolute precision in his comedy, Tatum's aloofness wouldn't properly engage. The way these two combine to bring us two incredibly different, incredibly effective styles of comedy is a huge part of the reason that 23 Jump Street is on its way. They have such an easy chemistry, despite their different approaches both to their styles of comedy and to their character's approaches to the job. It's easy to root for these two because that chemistry is so tangible, and it's a hell of a trick to pull off by the two of them. The supporting cast help to land a huge number of jokes as well, with Ice Cube completely owning his role as their captain and new inclusion Amber Stevens making a mark as love interest Maya. But in terms of supporting characters, Jillian Bell is the real talking point here. She owns this movie. She dominates every scene she's in. Her first scene opposite Jonah Hill is an absolutely devastating and hilarious verbal barrage and she only gets given more room to shine as the film goes on. She is an incredible comic talent and if she isn't showing up in a huge amount of movies after being seen here, then something is terribly wrong.

The film isn't without its problems, of course. There's a scene with some characters from 21 Jump Street which I don't think entirely works and personally I would've liked to see Channing Tatum's character taken in the direction that the film all but outright says he's going. But these are minor problems, and overall, the team behind this franchise have pulled off something amazing in creating a sequel that enhances and improves upon a lot of aspects of its original, as well as one of the year's funniest movies.

Defining Scene:

Family day at the college, and Jenko's reaction to it have to be my absolute favourite scenes of this movie. I know that's a cheat, seeing as they're separate scenes but screw it.