college comedy

Rating: 8/10 (6 July 2014)

An uplifting, not-too-serious movie about two mediocre police agents being sent back into familiar territory. Though the duo had conquered the drug scene at a prominent high school in the first movie, the next assignment to find a drug supplier and take them out at a college proved to be a lot more challenging.
22 Jump Street employs many similar tactics as the first movie, adding in elements such as gratuitous sex references, party scenes, drug happenings, and improvised hilarity. The approach taken by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller to maintain a similar formula as the first movie actually rendered pretty successful. The linearity of the plot line, again, followed a similar tone as the first movie. Though the formula was similar, the movie was able to add slight changes to continue the excitement and fun even through there was a repeated story base.
Not only did the storyline retain legitimacy from the first movie, but Barry Peterson (Director of Photography), and Keith Brachmann and David Rennie (film editors) did a fabulous job at keeping the action high paced, but congruent with the flow of the story. The makers of 22 Jump Street knew the demographics of their viewers to a very precise account, and catered to it accordingly. From big chested college broads to homo-erotic fraternity gestures, the film crew did their homework. As a college student and fraternity member myself, I can say positively that the crew's work in 22 Jump Street examples the exact stereotypes of college life, while adding in their own unique flair.
While the overall flow of the movie has an intensely unrealistic tone, the believability of the characters undertone keeps the interest of the viewers. The relationship between the main duo allows the atmosphere of the sets to get wild and frantic while still keeping some sense of realism. Overall, this movie is a great adventure for those that are looking for something a little more light-hearted, and are willing to go about a movie a little less seriously than most.