Directors: Phil Lord & Christopher Miller
Starring: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube, Jillian Bell, Amber Stevens
Running Time: 112 minutes
Certificate: 15
Synopsis: When a new designer drug kills a college student, officers Schmidt and Jenko go back undercover. But will their partnership survive life on campus?
Expectations were not particularly high for the first JUMP STREET movie. To the untrained eye, it was just the latest cash-in to come off the reboot production line. Unexpectedly, it was quality stuff – great work all round fellas, treat yourselves to a doughnut (well, maybe not Jonah).
For the follow-up, you’d be forgiven for letting your expectations slip way back down. Sequels, especially hastily produced ones such as this, rarely measure up. With little creative gumption of their own, they’re wont to simply stumble through the same old guff while making their way to the bank (I’m looking at you, TEEN WOLF TOO, you heartbreaking bastard). Thankfully, 22 JUMP STREET knows this better than anyone.
Right off the bat, there’s a shameless rehash of its predecessor, as Deputy Chief Hardy (played by Ron Swanson) calls Jenko and Schmidt into his office and lays down everything they need to know – no one thought the 21 Jump Street investigation would be a success, but it was, so here it comes again, exactly the same as it was before, just with a bigger budget.
From there, the self-referential gags come thick and fast, and though it looks like an almost identical story, there are playful twists on the events and the dynamic between Jenko and Schmidt from the first movie. It’s a smart-arse deconstruction of a smart-arse deconstruction. Clever boys.
It’s not all perfect, mind you. While everyone’s having a ruddy good laugh about how smart and funny they are in the (admittedly very funny) set pieces, the story is sometimes left floundering in the background. But if you’ve arrived at the cinema expecting a tightly plotted undercover thriller, you’re in the wrong screen (and probably quite confused in general).
The order of the day is big laughs – and there are plenty to go around. Once again, Hill and Tatum are a strangely brilliant double-act; the first movie’s villains Dave Franco and Rob Riggle cameo in a hilarious jailhouse visit; Ice Cube, whose police captain is given a much bigger role here, absolutely steals it; and there’s a credits sequence that shits over anything Marvel has ever done.
Of course, there’s no escaping that for all its wit and ingenuity, 22 JUMP STREET is still a sequel, and no matter how many jokes it makes about that very fact, it doesn’t quite live up to the original. But it’s fun – lots of fun. In fact, if you have a better time at the cinema this summer, we’ll shoot our dicks off*.
*Not really.
[usr=4] 22 JUMP STREET is released in UK cinemas June 6th.
