Summer fun

Rating: 9/10 (19 June 2014)

There were a few dicey moments at the start of 22 Jump Street when I wasn't sure if it was going to work. Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum dress up as Mexican gangsters in an attempt to thwart drug dealers but get rumbled. It was teetering on cringe-worthy but luckily things improve rapidly and I was soon smiling, then laughing. Strangely, the plot centres on the duo's relationship as they are redeployed to a revitalised 22 Jump Street to investigate a drug-related death at a college. In their teenage guises, Tatum gets into the football team without really trying and buddies up with Wyatt Russell (a stoner jock, like a young Luke Wilson). Hill gets jealous, even though as a poetry major he's managed to get into bed with the adorable Amber Stevens. The writers never fail to nail a huge range of movie clichés. I particularly enjoyed a cross-campus car chase featuring a buggy in the shape of a football helmet. In short, Jump Street is a perfect summer comedy, even for people like me who had barely heard of the original series.