8.5/10

Rating: 8/10 (25 September 2014)

21 Jump Street is Right up there as one on my three or four favuorite comedies of all time, it had a perfect mix of humor, emotion and themes close to me and ever since I saw it for the first time I have come to love it more and more. Naturally when they announced a sequel with all the creative talent behind and in front of the camera returning I was beyond excited. Did they deliver again? Yes they really did. I am not yet ready to talk about this movie in comparison with its predecessor because I will have to see it a couple more times for that (yet it is so good I already want to go back to the theater and watch it again right now). I will get the one main negative out of the way immediately: it does not have the best cohesive story you could expect; its predecessor was so good because amongst all the ridiculousness and fun there was a very solid, thought-out story up-holding it. Here there is not a very solid story, I mean it is perfectly passable, but it felt kind of rushed in certain parts and it took away from the overall experience. One other very little negative was the green screen at the end: very, very bad, really unacceptable. Now as to the positive the list never ends. Phil Lord and Chris Miller are comedy gold, other than being extremely in control of their direction they add so many brilliant easter eggs and references for fans I'm sure I didn't catch all of them at first viewing. Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill are amazing in this one too, not yet sure if they're better or not from their previous performance. Obviously the highlight from the supporting cast is Ice Cube who is for sure funnier in this one. Now as to the movie itself I cannot speak highly enough of its witty brilliance: it mixes pop culture references, to hilarious self humor, adds even funnier dialogues and physical comedy, has top-notch-entertainment action scenes juxtaposed to college life scenes, even the music choices are perfect and ultimately it is so self aware it manages to feed the fans every single thing they wanted without being repetitive or too pretentious. This sequel is practically everything I wanted it to be and more and I really can't wait to see it again and again and open up with myself the debate on whether 21 or 22 is better. A quick shout out too to the credits: probably the funniest part of the movie with one of the most brilliant cameos I have ever seen.