587. 22 Jump Street (2014)

Starring: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube

Director: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller

Running Time: 112 mins

22 Jump Street is an American film, and the sequel to 21 Jump Street, that reboots the Jump Street operation, sending Schmidt and Jenko to college to root out the supplier of a new hip drug that threats to spread to colleges all over the world.

Well, this is a big improvement on the first film. For something that was not particularly memorable and relatively repetitive, I did enjoy the first one, but it seemed a little generic and not as entertaining as I had expected it to be.

However, this sequel is both funnier and simply more badass. The high school scenario didn’t feel as cool and/or realistic to me, but this college setting works a whole lot better. It allows the two main characters to go a lot more nuts than at high school, while also allowing for some for emotional and deeper plot lines to be brought in, because at high school that’s just creepy.

One thing that I would warn you about is that this film is a little bit of a slow starter. For the first half, it is a little bit of a rambling mess that wavers between the actual crime story and just messing around at college, and although that is the nature of the two main characters, it’s not that interesting to follow, meaning you only rely on the jokes to keep you entertained.

Also, at times, it feels like there’s a bit of over-indulgence in the story. Basically, for a comedy-crime film, you expect a decent and exciting plot, along with good comedy, however this can’t do both things at once for the first part, with occasionally long periods of overly emotional drivel or partying.

However, I loved the ending. It turns up the dial that is the story to not just 11, but 12, and brings in absolutely hilarious comedy as well as some brilliant action. The final stages are a complete farce, however I was hugely impressed by how unpredictable and exciting the whole thing was, with numerous completely unforeseeable plot twists popping up.

Throughout, probably the best running gag was the fact that this film completely recognises and takes the mick out of the fact that it’s a sequel that does exactly the same thing. In a similar move to The Lego Movie (same directors), it constantly reminds itself that it’s doing the same thing as the first film, which is a hilarious touch in my opinion.

On the whole, this is a very fun film, but what really makes it hugely entertaining is the comedy. Again, the first film was never laugh-out-loud funny, but this sequel combines slapstick with farce with awkwardness with brilliant one liners and anything else you can think of, and it was that that really made me enjoy it, so that’s why it gets a 7.8.

(Oh, and the credits for this are amazingly funny, so don’t stop watching before them!)