Definitely Not As Good As The First, But Still Holds Strong

Rating: 8/10 (16 July 2014)

Comedies are a genre I'm scarcely impressed by. Unless the humour is highly quirky or the film is deliberately offbeat, I typically don't like them. So from someone like Jonah Hill, (who I had come to expect just mainly sex jokes from after "Superbad"), I was really surprised to discover he wrote "21 Jump Street". Was I impressed that he basically took (what I guess was, at least) one of his favourite shows from when he was a kid and pointlessly slapping the name on a new undercover cop movie? No. But the fact he was smart enough to address that and that he was actually capable of writing clever humour and completely emotionally developed characters, in the end won me to over to end up loving 2011's "21 Jump Street" and accepting it as one of my favourite comedy film in the past few years. However the immediate set-up for a sequel really dismayed me because I was worried it would become a classic case of 'rinse and repeat' sequel syndrome. And in that, I was pretty much spot on.
So "22 Jump Street" takes place only a few months or so after its predecessor in that after being off Jump Street for a while, officers Jenko and Schmidt are re-assigned back to undercover work because they did it so well in their first case. So now they're sent off to college to do the exact same thing as the first film. And the thing that forgives most of the film for this is that the writers were clearly aware of this so they made full well the audience got the message that "Yes, we know this is the same as the first movie. Don't bash us for it, its part of the joke. Go along with it". But in that, at the same time, the movie also feels highly rehashed and you can't help but go "This is the exact same". I got sick of it towards the end, I just wanted something new. And a movie, especially a sequel should not make me do that.
The other thing I want to address in this movie is that surprisingly I still laughed at this movie just as hard, and definitely harder in one scene, as I did in "21 Jump Street". The comedy is still there, and it's still just as good. So don't think that because the movie feels rehashed that you're not going to laugh because yes you definitely are, regardless.
Now while the first "Jump Street" had some fairly recognizable supporting cast members like Dave Franco and Brie Larson, I have to say this movie's supporting cast was way more unknown. I thought I recognized Jonah Hill's new love interest but clearly she just looks like someone else because she has been no one with real screen time from anything I've seen on her filmography. So it seems like they had to use the budget they would have used on some bigger names, and instead used it to keep up with the cost for all the action scenes. It's just wasted potential, to me and that is a big disappointment.
The acting itself in the movie is very good. There's only three people to care about this time since there's no real supportive cast. Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, and surprisingly Ice Cube. I wasn't a huge fan of him in the first film (or any movie he's ever been in), so I'm surprised how much I enjoyed him this time around. But first off, I have to talk about our main duo. Tatum and Hill are a great duo because they have a chemistry locked down that so many films try to copy. It's funny to me because I would have never though that a G.I. Joe and that kid from "Superbad" would one day be hilarious as hell together in an action- comedy, yet here we are. They bounce off each other really well, and I'm certain there's plenty of times where their lines are improv and it's completely seamless. They're great together and I hope they do another series or something after the Jump Street movies because they are so brilliant as a duo.
Now Ice Cube was one of the biggest surprises to me in this film because I have never like him as an actor. He played up the angry black captain stereotype in the first film and it did alright for him. But what I realize now is that I didn't care because he just started off angry and never had motive. In this film they give him reason to be the angry black captain and that pushes into hilarity. Now I love his character and would watch a whole movie with him. It's just a good example how character development does add to an audience's enjoyment with a film.
The last thing I think I can say is that the action in this movie is bigger than the last one, and overall better. There are more jokes while the fights are happening and it's all actual realistic conversations I've imagined real people would have if they got into that sort of fight, for example. There's one which makes fun of a really old cliché really well and it was one of the funniest scenes of the whole movie, that's all I'm going to say.
So in the end, was "22 Jump Street" enjoyable? Yes. Was it better than the first? No. Was it a rehash? Definitely. But it did redeem itself a little bit by acknowledging that fact, even the joke got old quick. I'm still going to buy this movie, it's still super entertaining to me. It's best watched with a bunch of friends, like all comedies are. After this I think the inevitable 23 Jump Street could turn out at least good. Let's just hope it'll be more original.