[Movie Review] 22 Jump Street (2014)
Directors: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
Writers: Michael Bacall (screenplay & story), Oren Uziel (screenplay), Rodney Rothman (screenplay)
Runtime: 112 min
Main Cast
- Jonah Hill as Morton Schmidt
- Channing Tatum as Greg Jenko
- Peter Stormare as The Ghost
- Wyatt Russell as Zook
- Amber Stevens as Maya
- Jillian Bell as Mercedes
- Ice Cube as Captain Dickson
- Nick Offerman as Deputy Chief Hardy
Review: by Anthony and Lee
We loved 21 Jump Street. Tatum and Hill's chemistry made 21 Jump Street a success, and we were excited to see the sequel.
What We Liked:
Channing Tatum, although he has a brick for a face, certainly performed his role well. The scenes between him and Hill were fantastic, but they almost paled in comparison to the bromantic scenes between “Brad” and Zook (Wyatt Russell).
Jonah Hill also played his role well, and his interactions with Ice Cube were some of the funniest in the movie.
Speaking of Ice Cube, he was much more heavily featured this time around. We definitely enjoyed seeing him get more involved in the investigation, despite his over-the-top acting.
As was hammered home by the movie itself, 22 Jump Street had almost the “exact same” plot as the first movie, with the exception of the reversed roles of Schmidt and Jenko. We loved the meta-humor of the film and the way that it poked fun at itself, particularly when it came to explaining the bigger budget of both the Jump Street program and the sequel. The writers were very clever about it, especially in the chase scene through campus. Schmidt told Jenko to take the “least expensive” route when they arrived at a fork in the path, and he takes the seemingly more expensive route. However, in terms of the actual movie’s budget, it was the cheaper choice. We loved it, and we greatly enjoyed the other clever jokes as well, particularly the one about the Red Herring.
Finally, the best part of the movie was the end credits. In similar form to the first movie, 22 Jump Street ended with a set up for another movie and another and another and another. The credits are clips of scenes, pictures, and movie posters from several subsequent “sequels” that even managed another cameo from an original 21 Jump Street (1987) cast member. We laughed yet again at the way the movie picked fun at itself, but we also acknowledged that we would definitely watch some, if not all, of those sequels.
What We Didn’t Like:
As funny as 22 Jump Street was, it definitely took some of its jokes too far. The dealer, for example, had a certain type of running joke that always went on too long. The first time, it would be funny. The second time, it was alright. The third and subsequent times, it would drag. The bad thing was that all three or more jokes were made in each of the scenes, not throughout the movie. It seemed like the writers brainstormed the jokes, and then decided that they liked them all too much to cut any of them. Really, that was the only issue. We really enjoyed it.
Summary
22 Jump Street was a very funny movie. We enjoyed the Channing/Hill duo once again, and we loved that the movie did not take itself seriously. It was definitely worth seeing.
Images courtesy of IMDB
