Movie #20 - 22 Jump Street

Although the first film didn't blow me away back in 2012 (3 star review out of 5), the teaser ads had me looking forward to seeing the next instalment to reunite our bumbling heroes Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum).  And this time around, I really liked it, mainly because the jokes come really thick and fast and are really funny.

The plot: Schmidt and Jenko attempt a takedown of a drug trafficker, screw it up, get demoted to 22 Jump Street (the office has moved across the road) and have to go undercover at a university to find a student who is dealing a drug that has recently killed a female student. Hilarity ensues.

Does any of this sound familiar?  Yep that's right, the plot is identical to the first movie.  But don't worry, the filmmakers get it and have used this as the key running joke of the film.  There are numerous references sprinkled from beginning to the end of the movie about how this is just the same movie again plus riffs on how sequels usually suck.  But there is one difference this time around: Jenko gets to embrace his jock roots as he infiltrates the NFL team while Schmidt works the arty/poetry crowd angle that plays to his nerdy background.  So this time the humour derives less from the fish out of water characters in unfamiliar roles, and more from the relationship between Schmidt and Jenko as slightly homoerotic buddies.  While they initially work well together, the investigation takes them separate ways which is hard for Schmidt to let go.  A scene where they start to put all the pieces of the drug dealer mystery together while pretending to need couples counselling is really funny.

The film rides on the strength of the leads and both are better this time around after the awkward settling in phase of 21 Jump Street.  Channing Tatum's comedic talent is well and truly out in the open now (as are his or his stuntman's parkour skills which are employed as much as possible and as unnecessarily as possible to hilarious effect), and Jonah benefits from holding back a little more than usual. His walk of shame is absolute perfection though.  Ice Cube is again fantastic as the boys' angry boss and he absolutely steals the film in one scene.  Most of the other supporting characters such as the uni students they must bond with are fairly lightly drawn and don't make a huge impact, but the identical twins are pretty funny.

Ultimately, there's not a lot to it but everything that's there is consistently funny, surprisingly not too low-brow, and the momentum just keeps on building.  Do not leave before the end credits, which are the funniest end credits I've ever seen, by a long shot.  I'll be back for 23 Jump Street for sure.  This is a 4 star comedy which adds to the short list of sequels that are better than the original.