I rarely do movie reviews but 22 Jump Street is just too good not to tell you about it.
Simply put, If you loved the first movie then you are gonna love this even more.
Ironically, though this amazing sequel is about how bad sequels are.
After making their way through high school (twice), big changes are in store for officers Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) when they go deep undercover at a local college. But when Jenko meets a kindred spirit on the athletic team, and Schmidt infiltrates the bohemian art major scene, they begin to question their partnership. Now they don’t have to just crack the case – they have to figure out if they can have a mature relationship. If these two overgrown adolescents can grow from freshmen into real men, college might be the best thing that ever happened to them.
I will forever remember Phil Lord and Christopher Miller for creating the Lego Movie which totally gets what a movie about Lego should be, and 22 Jumpstreet is exactly what you’d like a sequel to be.
It makes fun of how pointless most sequels are (except maybe to make more money) and the movie repeatedly makes references of how sequels often recycle a lot of materials giving viewers the same thing over again–since its what they probably wanted anyway.
22 Jump Street has all those, but does it right making for one hilarious movie, I dare you not to laugh for more than 5 minutes, whether you are a fan of the first movie or not.
Channing Tatum and Jonah hill builds on their chemistry, and it would be unfortunate not to see these two outside the Jumpstreet franchise.
The ODD Couple
In 2012, audiences around the world sparked to one of the year’s funniest comedies with the hit film 21 Jump Street. Directed by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, and featuring terrific chemistry between stars Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, 21 Jump Street took the classic television series’ premise of youthful-looking cops going undercover in a high school and made it all its own. Where the series was an earnest procedural, the film became a subversion of action comedies, with the relationship between the leads taking center stage.
“Schmidt and Jenko are an odd couple,” says Hill. “They got together because they’re partners, but they really worked well together because they brought different things to the table.”
That setup proved ripe for comedy – and for Tatum to show off remarkable and unexpected comedy chops. “I’d never been in a comedy before,” says Tatum. “I learned to trust the process – I mean, Jonah is so good, he can throw out four or five different ways of saying a line, one right after another. I trust him, and Chris and Phil – I’m among friends. If they’re laughing, you know it’s funny.”
As a result, Schmidt and Jenko became an unforgettable screen couple. “They’re like Bogart and Bacall,” says Phil Lord, who returns to co-direct the film with Christopher Miller, who adds, “They had this amazing natural chemistry. They’re very different, but they really respect and admire each other. They make a great yin-yang pair.”
Now, in 22 Jump Street, the filmmakers take the relationship to the next level. If the first film was about forming a relationship, the new film is about what it takes to make a relationship last.
That idea dovetails nicely with the fact that the film is a sequel. Rather than approach 22 Jump Street by trying to re-create the magic – a re-tread of what came before – the filmmakers sought ways to keep it fresh… which is, of course, what we all have to do with our relationships. “The thing that struck us about movie sequels is that, in a way, they’re like the second part of a relationship,” says Lord. “In a relationship, you can try to recreate the past, but it’s never going to be the same; you’ve got to create new and different experiences that are just as great.”
“We came up with the idea of the ‘seven year itch,’” says producer Neal H. Moritz. “In the first film, they didn’t like each other, but came to be great friends and partners; now, their relationship has become complacent – like a marriage. That became the spine of our story.”
“So, that’s how we approached the movie,” says Miller, picking up the thought. “The running gag is that the plot is just like the last one – but in trying to do the same thing again, it doesn’t work, and Schmidt and Jenko have to find something new.”
With that in mind, it also made sense to the filmmakers that 22 Jump Street would be set in a college. “We got inspired by the idea that Jenko and Schmidt are each other’s ‘hometown honey’ – but they go to college, and the world is opened up to them,” says Lord. “They experience new things and start to wonder whether they’re with the right person or not. For those of us who went to college and had friends who went through that, it seemed honest and true.”
“College is about finding out who you are,” says Hill, who also produces the film with Moritz and Tatum. “For example, Schmidt has really defined himself by this partnership with Jenko. In college, he’s struggling to know who he is.”
Jenko, meanwhile, has found somebody with a few more of his shared interests. When their investigation leads them to look into the football team, Jenko finds a kindred spirit in Zook, the team’s quarterback, played by Wyatt Russell. Before long, the bromance that seemed made in heaven is in trouble. “Zook is kind of Jenko’s man-crush,” says Tatum. “There are jealousy issues immediately – and those issues get in the way of the case that Schmidt and Jenko are supposed to be working. They end up investigating separately.”
Returning to the helm are Phil Lord & Christopher Miller. “The first movie was so innately theirs; it was distinctively Chris and Phil,” says Tatum. “The biggest thing for me was that the tone was different – it had a refreshing feel and a tone I’d never seen in a movie before. That’s why I was so happy that they wanted to come back and join us for the sequel – I knew they’d make the movie something special.”
Lord and Miller directed the film while simultaneously working on The Lego Movie, which has since become a worldwide hit. With their success on 21 Jump Street and their first film, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Lord and Miller are one of the most important directorial voices in today’s film comedy genre.
Though it was clear from the beginning that making 22 Jump Street feel as fresh and original as the franchise’s first entry would be a challenge, it was just the kind of challenge that appealed to them. In fact, it’s easy to forget that 21 Jump Street was no slam dunk until Lord and Miller showed how it could be done. “It seems like if there’s a project that’s really hard and there’s only one way to pull it off, that’s the kind of project we want to do,” says Lord.
“Phil and Chris are two of the kindest, nicest, hardworking guys. They really know how to instill heart into their movies,” says Moritz. “Even in a completely silly comedy scene, they know how to put heart into it and track those relationships from the beginning of the film to the end and make sure that is the center of the story.”
For their part, Lord and Miller were not only excited by the chance to explore the themes of the relationship, but to play with the entire idea of making an action-comedy sequel. “What’s fun about doing this kind of a movie is you get to subvert the genre,” says Lord. “You go see a Neal Moritz movie, and you know it’s going to have a cool car chase – but we’ve got Schmidt behind the wheel and he doesn’t know how to drive.”
“Other movies can do the crazy action stuff better than we can. We have to have a strong comic idea that runs through it,” says Miller. “We have to do something that has a funny idea, but also looks as badass as possible.”
For example: a huge chase scene through the madness of Spring Break. “That seemed really funny to us – to stage a chase scene amidst the complication of a bunch of drunken, insane college students getting wasted and flashing everybody,” says Lord.
Ice COLD, ICE CUBE
The movie not only references both 21 Jump Street, the movie and the show but also the other projects Hill and Tatum has done, I might have to watch it several times to get them all. It’s a college comedy, buddy cop movie, with all the expected cliches’ characters, college antics which inevitably tests the partnership of Jenko and Schmidt.
If Schmidt had the time of his life returning to highschool its Jenko’s turn to get the spotlight. Couple’s therapy? yep its also there.
Tatum and Hill each has their own comedic moments but the best parts, I’m sure you’d agree are those involving Ice Cube. Some of the funniest moments of the film would not work if it wasn’t for his menacing look and his status as the duo’s boss.
Returning to the role of Captain Dickson is Ice Cube. “He was my childhood hero,” says Hill. “When we worked on t1he first one, the first thing we wrote down was that Ice Cube – the guy who wrote ‘F— Tha Police’ – should play the police captain. It’s a true childhood dream to be able to hang out with him.”
Cube relishes the role. “I’m the meanest, nastiest captain of them all,” says Ice Cube. “He hates everybody equally. You’ve seen nasty ‘Angry Black Captains’ – I want to be the top notch.”
While the audience saw only one side of Dickson in 21 Jump Street, moviegoers are treated to a more well-rounded character in 22 Jump Street. (Sort of.) “We see him in a lot of different lights,” Cube explains. “He’s a little different with everybody, but he’s still mean, nasty and angry. Even his wife is mean and nasty.”
“A lot of the comedy, for us, comes between the interplay between Schmidt and Dickson,” says Lord. “Schmidt is a guy who seems like he should be low status to Dickson, but considers himself an equal. That’s really funny to us.”
“Schmidt is that annoying kid in high school, thinking that today is going to be the day he’s going to break the ice,” says Cube. “There’s no breaking the ice with Dickson.”
I dont want to discuss the movie in detail as its still basically the two of them going to college “doing the same stuff” investigating the “same drug problem” and getting the same results, how they get there however results in one of the funniest comedy flick in the past two years since 21 Jumpstreet came out in 2012.
This is one movie you’d want to see on the big screen, not for the visual and sound effects, but for the experience of sharing laughs with the rest of the audience.“22 Jump Street” has been rated R-13 and opens in cinemas today June 18.
