Starring: Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Ice Cube, Peter Stormare, Wyatt Russell, Amber Stevens, Nick Offerman
Directed by: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller
Synopsis: After making their way through high school (twice), big changes are in store for officers Schmidt and Jenko when they go deep undercover at a local college.
21 Jump Street was a surprise hit for me. I thought it was inventive, fresh and, most importantly funny. Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill had a great chemistry and it must have been obvious to everyone as it went on to do extremely well at the box office. Which is why 22 Jump Street feels like a bit of an anti-climax. Don’t get me wrong, I laughed a few times, but I also cringed just as many times as any given joke seemed to miss it’s ‘get out’ point and carry on and on, regardless of if it was funny in the first place.
As is so often the case with the second movie in a sequel, it loses that ‘surprise’ element that made the first one great. To be fair to ’22’ it knows what it’s up against and makes a point of sticking to the same formula. Right down to the fact that the big joke is that this film is the same as the first in every way except it’s in College instead of High School. Which is a fairly funny concept, except what is contained within just didn’t hit the standards it should have.
There were some decent set pieces such as the beginning sequence with the boys on a delivery truck trying to bring down the bad guys and the ending was fairly spectacular. But if a good comedy is measured on how many laughs it gets, 22 Jump Street failed miserably it has to be said, which is a shame because I like Jonah Hill an Channing Tatum. They have good chemistry, but unfortunately just not a good script.
In fact the best gag of all might well be the end credits, of which I won’t spoil. At least it shows that the makers have a sense of humour, even if it wasn’ actually transfered to screen this time.
So, whilst we are in college mode, I would say that despite some early promise, 22 Jump Street ultimately must try harder.
