22 Jump Street Review

“It’s always worse the second time.” Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller came into this sequel well aware of how follow-ups to successful comedies are perceived in the media, and made sure not to give their critics the satisfaction of saying “I told you so.” Amidst the whispers of “cash grab” and “sophomore slump”, the directorial duo made sure to put out a finished product that disarmed even the sharpest barbs of their critics right off the bat, leaving the audience free to laugh at one of the more ridiculous and entertaining 112 minutes of film in recent years. What made 21 Jump Street work so well is that everyone involved was painfully aware of the expectations coming into it, yet embraced these expectations rather than running from them. The writers didn’t force us to believe that a buddy cop movie starring a handsome dumbass alongside his intelligent but geeky partner was reinventing the wheel, nor did the actors playing these characters expect this film to change their reputations. Instead, they encouraged us to “embrace our stereotypes” rather than nitpick the movie apart, which played a large part in why a movie that was expected to flop became one of the more pleasant surprises in recent memory. The same applies here. With thinly veiled jabs at the fears 22 Jump Street would be unnecessarily high-scale and too similar to its predecessor, the writers dispelled these fears the only way they knew how -- making the movie loud, large, obnoxious and almost identical to 21. This film may be set at Metro City’s state college rather than high school, but the mission is still the same: “infiltrate the dealers, find the supplier”. This time around the drug of choice goes by “WHY-PHY” (Work Hard, Yes. Party Hard, Yes) and it must be stopped before spring break. (Yes, replace WHY-PHY with HFS and spring break with prom and you have 21 Jump Street). But as with the first movie, the entertainment has nothing to do with the case and everything to do with the characters. Everyone’s favorite bromance gets stretched and put under a microscope here, as this movie transfroms the relationship between Officers Jenko and Schmidt from a running gag into something as serious as a comedy littered with potty humor will permit. Whereas Schmidt fit in perfectly with the new age of socially conscious high school kids in the last movie, it appears nothing has changed in college, since all Jenko has to do to win this crowd over is catch footballs and open beer bottles with his eye lids. This puts a real strain on the relationship, as Jenko becomes close with his quarterback Zuke, which forces him to evaluate his future and decide where his loyalty really lies. Notice that I’ve yet to mention anything about a real love interest so far. That’s because aside from a hilarious sub-plot, this movie almost entirely focuses on relationships between men. And for a film that is about as low-key and dignified as a kick to the groin, it actually has some pretty poignant things to say. It pokes fun at how everyone assumes Jenko and Schmidt to be gay, but when Jenko spends time lifting shirtless with Zuke it’s just “boys being boys”. And while it does contain a few cheap jokes that could be interpreted as slightly insensitive towards gays, it’s actually pretty mature and touching when it maintains the importance of friendship between males no matter how “unmanly” it may come off as. Come for the shirtless Channing Tatum and jokes, stay for the social commentary. The supporting cast is as strong as ever -- Ice Cube continues to impress as Captain Dickson, and the additions of Jillian Bell and Jimmy Tatro are welcomed. And the writing is a lot more clever than it gets credit for, giving hope for the future of “dumb” comedies like this one. All in all I feel as if 22 Jump Street delivered all I could ask for from a comedy, and I can guarantee that any fan of the first Jump Street will not feel let down by its sequel.