Runtime: 1 hour, 52 minutes
Rating: R
Directors: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
Quick Impressions:
Okay, I loved this movie. I’ll just come out and say that right at the beginning and get it over with. If you’re looking for life-changing profundity, you probably need to look elsewhere (unless you’re very young or very young emotionally), but if you want to laugh for about ninety minutes straight, then watch some fairly engaging action sequences, then laugh again at the resolution, then go ahead and check out 22 Jump Street.
Basically, if you liked the movie 21 Jump Street, you’ll like 22 Jump Street, too. It’s exactly like the first movie only marginally better.
Frankly I’d go so far as to say it’s significantly funnier, and the first one cracked me up, too. The reason I call it only marginally better is that the momentum break just before the final showdown drags just the tiniest bit. (If we doubted the outcome of the rift between Schmidt and Jenko for even a fraction of a second, then perhaps this melancholy period wouldn’t seem to drag at all. But for me the movie gets just the tiniest bit slow here—though this entire portion of the film must take less than ten minutes.)
Still when sequels in general have a track record of being more than marginally worse than the original, surely marginally better doesn’t sound half bad, right?
After enjoying both Jump Streets, the Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs franchise, and this spring’s Lego Movie, I’m basically at the point where I’d gladly watch anything directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. I love to laugh, and I’m always glad to lose myself in a comedy that’s actually funny.
The Good:
The most endearing thing about this movie is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously. It never passes up a chance to make somebody laugh, so essentially everything in the movie is a joke. Some of the jokes are incredibly sophisticated. Others (by far the majority) are incredibly dumb (but still funny). And some, of course, are both sophisticated and dumb. (I think all the meta sequel/second assignment jokes the movie bombards us with relentlessly about fifteen minutes in definitely fall into this category.) I found myself smiling and sometimes actually laughing at even the stupidest puns or corniest references (and there are a lot of call backs to the first film and allusions to other staples of pop culture). For the most part, these ridiculously juvenile jokes work because of the actors’ delivery. (You know you shouldn’t laugh when Dickson’s office is described as looking like a big cube of ice, for example, but it’s really hard not to be drawn into the film’s antic sense of good-natured goofiness).
Some of the humor is entirely visual. (I love the photo in Deputy Chief Hardy’s office. It’s such a simple thing, but for some reason, it amused me inordinately. And the name of one of the buildings behind them during a not-so-high speed chase across campus is pretty inspired, too.)
That reminds me, when I say everything is a joke, I mean it. Every name that comes up—the aliases, the buildings, the institutions—they’re all chosen deliberately for comedic value. In some ways, this movie is like a stranger who flirts with you at a party, determined to make you laugh. You may not be amused by everything, but the humor is so varied and so relentless that at some point, you’ll find yourself unable to resist giving in and laughing out loud.
The story is clever (and aware of its cleverness) but not particularly amazing in terms of plot. Obviously the real strength of the screenplay is the humor. And so much of the humor works mainly because the cast is full of talented actors with a flair for comedy.
As I discovered watching 21 Jump Street, Channing Tatum has fantastic comic timing. (This was a genuine revelation to me as I watched him play Jenko back in 2012, and for the first time Tatum started to interest me when I realized how funny he can be.) Tatum is even better this time around. And Jonah Hill is very funny, too. The two of them have quite different (though winningly complementary) styles of delivery. Most of the movie plays like a highlight reel of great moments by two hilarious friends. You watch and think, Oh, Jonah Hill’s so funny here, and Channing Tatum is so funny here, oh, and in this scene they’re really playing off each other well. They’re really funny together.
Hill’s emotionally distraught, self-deprecating humor really worked for me. I found myself identifying with him several times since I also can’t climb and feel inadequate and lost at big cool parties and social events where one is expected to behave like a normal person. Meanwhile Tatum’s goofy charm seems so effortless that it’s rewardingly engaging. You watch and think, I just knew handsome, popular guys were all effortlessly cool, funny, and vulnerable like this. I just knew it all along.
The rest of the cast is awesome, too. In a long cameo, Rob Riggle and Dave Franco managed to crack me up, which is really quite amazing because Riggle is often too much for me, and I don’t always find him funny at all. To be brutally honest, much of his material here is so crude and dumb that I don’t think I would have been amused one bit to read it on paper; however, to my own surprise, Riggle’s line delivery actually did make me laugh. I think it’s because his character keeps getting increasingly more and more bizarre, so ultimately the bizarre factor overwhelms the crude/dumb angle, and you’re really laughing at the obvious bafflement and discomfort of everyone on screen with him.
Nick Offerman isn’t in the movie much, but I remember being consistently amused throughout his entire early scene. Jokes that really shouldn’t have worked quite so well just seemed inexplicably hilarious when Offerman delivered them.
Ice Cube has much more to do this time around, and he is start-to-finish fantastic. I can’t tell you how many badly written family comedies starring Ice Cube I have suffered through. (It may have been only one, honestly, but that one was so bad. I felt so sorry for him.) He’s a talented guy, and in this movie, he finally has a part that showcases his talents perfectly. (He’s given other good performances, but too often, as an actor, he gets stuck with subpar material for some reason I just don’t get.) I loved him in 22 Jump Street. I hope there is a 23 Jump Street, and I hope if there is, he gets to have a part as great as the one he has here.
I was also surprised by how much liked Jillian Bell. Her scene in the preview always struck me as kind of annoying and unfunny, and when she first showed up in the film, I thought, Oh, it’s that annoying, unfunny person. But then she gradually grew on me, until by the end (and in the same scene I had hated in the preview), I suddenly found her hilarious.
The Lucas Brothers made me laugh a lot, too, mainly because they made me think fondly of my stepson (who may often be heard saying, “Jinx, you owe me a Coke.”) Their humor is more likely to elicit a fond smile than intense laughter. Marc Evan Jackson and Patton Oswalt are also funny in small parts.
Amber Stevens, meanwhile, is absolutely gorgeous and great in her part, though she mostly plays straight man to Jonah Hill and other co-stars. I’d love to see her return in a future Jump Street installment, as well.
Peter Stormare (whom I always think of as “the psychopath guy from Fargo”) also gives a nice (though non-showy) performance in a role that isn’t particularly designed to get laughs.
Wyatt Russell is also pretty captivating as Zook. He’s extremely attractive and charismatic, making a fairly dull character more exciting than he ought to be. Know why he’s so attractive and charismatic? He’s the son of Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn, a piece of trivia I just learned while looking up his name thirty seconds ago. You learn something new every day.
The whole cast is pretty great, and the best part is that everyone involved has one goal—to make the audience laugh.
Funniest Scene:
Just about every scene in this movie is funny. I was hoping that 22 Jump Street would be like its predecessor in that the trailer would show mainly scenes from the first half hour of the film, leaving the rest a delightful surprise. And, in fact, that’s what happened. So not only are ninety percent of the scenes funny, but ninety percent of those scenes are unspoiled, completely new.
The first time I consciously thought, That was the funniest scene so far came when Jonah Hill participated in the poetry slam. At first, I listened to him and thought skeptically, This is not that great. This is not that funny. But then suddenly, the ending completely sold me on the entire performance and caught me off guard by making me laugh more than I’d expected.
Don’t get me wrong, at that point, lots of funny stuff had already happened and even more funny stuff was still coming up. But the scene still stands out (partially because I still can’t put my finger on exactly why I found the ending of his performance as hilarious as I did).
Best Scene:
About halfway through the movie, Ice Cube has this phenomenal scene that absolutely killed me. I fell over into my husband several times, laughing silently through an open, grinning mouth like a deranged maniac. The appearance of an unexpected guest star (basically a cameo) for some inexplicable reason makes this moment even funnier, even though that person isn’t doing anything particularly funny. Honestly, I think I liked that better than anything else in the movie (and I loved the whole movie).
My husband, on the other hand, nearly died laughing at a later, related scene when Channing Tatum’s character finally understands the significance of this earlier moment and reacts in what has to be the most over-the-top juvenile way possible. That part was very funny, too.
One of those scenes is the best in the movie for sure. We definitely weren’t laughing alone. The entire audience joined in. Tons of people were laughing out loud and fairly hard, especially during the latter scene.
Best Action Sequence:
I’m very partial to the fight between Jonah Hill and Jillian Bell, which is odd because out of context, it pointedly did not amuse me in the film’s theatrical trailer. I think what makes the fight work is how long it goes on. If we were only given one quick look at what happens there, one exchange between the two of them, it would just seem kind of pointless. But when it drags on and on and on with the same increasingly strange tone, it starts to gain comic momentum. I didn’t really find her character funny at first, but she remained committed so long that she finally won me over, I guess. I really liked her Golden Girls joke even though I didn’t think it was funny, which I find hard to explain. Really the whole character wasn’t funny, but then when you realize more about her character, you suddenly see why her sense of humor is so unfunny, and then she suddenly starts seeming funny especially when she’s not. It’s very weird, but I think that’s why it works.
Best Scene Visually:
I won’t lie. It’s pretty amazing to watch Channing Tatum climb up and down buildings like Spiderman. Watching, I suddenly thought, I have completely misunderstood the point of life. Clearly I should have been preparing myself to climb up and down buildings like Spiderman. Then I would be so cool like Channing Tatum. I didn’t know that was even a thing to aspire toward achieving.
Clearly I don’t get life. I’m so misguided. I’ve never climbed anything.
The tripping out scene is funny, too, eventually. At first, I thought this split-screen hallucination wasn’t as funny as the rest of the movie, but then at the end it suddenly really cracked me up. (Come to think of it, the movie often played that trick on me. I’d think, This isn’t really funny. This isn’t that funny. This isn’t so funny. And then, Oh my God! This is suddenly hilarious! What’s happening? Why am I laughing so hard?)
I really love the part about taking the third bullet, too. That was so unexpected and well timed.
The Negatives:
The movie doesn’t care that it’s occasionally dumb and juvenile, so why should I? 22 Jump Street is like the class clown and will shamelessly try anything for a laugh. How can I fault it for any shortcomings when it’s not even taking itself seriously and it’s so relentlessly dedicated to the audience’s entertainment and mirth?
Like I said back at the beginning of this review, Jenko and Schmidt’s temporary “break-up” provides a momentum break that feels a little too long to me. This part of the movie isn’t as fast-paced or as funny as the rest. And the thing is, it’s not genuinely sad either because nobody in the theater is thinking in dismay, “Well, I guess he’s given up being a policeman forever now. That’s it. Their partnership is over. Will the movie end with his former partner’s suicide?” I mean, we all know this rift is only temporary. So this part just isn’t as effective as the rest of the movie. But still, this part is seriously less than ten minutes long. It’s not like ten minutes of slower pacing and fewer jokes completely ruins the movie. It’s honestly not a big deal.
One curious thing about the movie is its determination not to be offensive. (I was surprised they kept in a Tracy Morgan joke given his serious accident, but then again, the joke wasn’t offensive.) There’s no question that 22 Jump Street prides itself on making a movie-long running joke about the “partnership” of Schmidt and Jenko. It goes out of its way to compare their professional dynamic to a romantic relationship over and over and over again. And then the ridiculously intense bromance between Jenko and Zook looks so much like an actual romance that for a pretty long time I was convinced that this subtexty “joke” was going to turn into a plot twist when strong-armed quarterback Zook made a pass Jenko wasn’t expecting (or was he? This movie makes a point of flipping what happened in the last. Now Jenko is the cool one again, and Schmidt is the artsy outcast, but you’ll notice that once again, Jonah Hill’s character is the one who gets a female love interest. There is never a girl for Channing Tatum.)
What’s interesting is that the movie makes a pronounced point of denouncing homophobia (even when unintentional, as in the form of slurs uttered in youthful ignorance). It also makes a point of telling us that it’s not cool to hit girls (as Jonah Hill is hitting one), and it jokes around about how unfunny it is to make jokes about race. In doing all of this, the movie manages to be so playfully charming that it’s easy to go along with it and see things from its point of view. And I’m not even sure that this is a bad thing. I think it’s commendable to speak out pointedly against bigotry, violence, and racism in a mainstream, R-rated comedy. I just wonder about the movie’s motivations. I mean, it reminds me of a person saying to you, “Our world is so ridiculously PC that you just have to laugh at it. Being PC doesn’t matter to me because I’m better than that. I genuinely care about the wellbeing of other people. And what I’m going to say now may seem to contradict what I’ve just told you, but that will be a misunderstanding on your part. I’m actually a really nice guy, and what I’m about to say is a joke. I’m just being funny. Remember that.” How should you react to that?
This is less a criticism of 22 Jump Street than it is an observation of a trend. For quite a while, comedies seemed to succeed best when they were as shocking, raunchy, offensive, and objectionable as possible. Maybe that trend is on the way out. But what is going to replace it? I’m curious. Will comedies become less offensive or will they simply convince their audiences that they have no right to become offended? Don’t get me wrong. It’s great that 22 Jump Street took an entire scene to point out that it’s not cool to ridicule people for being gay. But the movie still falls back rather heavily on jokes about Jenko and Schmidt’s “partnership.” You could argue, of course, that by equating their relationship to a romantic one and then showing it in a positive light, the movie is actually affirming love between two men rather than taking cheap shots. And I think on some level that’s true, but what about Jenko’s line near the end when he’s looking for the grenade? I don’t know. I don’t think 22 Jump Street is offensive. Even some of its rudest jokes are too sweetly, dumbly juvenile to offend. I’m just curious about this new trend I’ve noticed in several comedies and plan to revisit the question in ten years or so when I have more evidence and greater distance.
Finally I’ll offer a critique not of the movie but of the audience. During the preshow, my husband and I chatted briefly about my stepson. He’s eleven now and at that tricky age where I know he’d find much of this movie hilarious, yet some elements are so crude that as parents we probably shouldn’t show it to him. I’m not sure he’d enjoy watching risqué material with his parents, anyway. That might be awkward for him. Pinpointing his current maturity level is difficult for me, though. When I was his exact age, I spent the entire summer feverishly reading biographies of Marilyn Monroe. That seemed entirely age appropriate to me at the time, but when I imagine him reading the same stuff, I think that surely he must be too young. It’s hard to know for sure. Anyway, while we were discussing this, two separate families entered the theater with disturbingly young children in tow. In terms of R-rated comedies, this one is actually pretty mild. There are no explicit sex scenes and the violence isn’t scary, but I really think the many prominent dildos and plot essential drug use should dissuade parents from taking children who aren’t taller than the theater seats. Please don’t take seven-year-old children to an R-rated comedy. I’m a ridiculously permissive parent, but if you’re taking kids that little, why not choose How to Train Your Dragon 2 instead? It’s playing right next door, for heaven’s sake. It’s not like your only other choice is watching paint dry!
Overall:
I loved 22 Jump Street. It probably made me laugh more than any other comedy so far this year (although I also really enjoyed The Lego Movie, another project from the same directors). Not everybody will like an R-rated comedy with its sometimes crude humor, but if you liked the movie 21 Jump Street, I can’t really think of a reason you wouldn’t enjoy the sequel. If anything, I like 22 Jump Street better than the first.
Make sure to stick around after the movie ends, too. The first part of the end credits is an absolute scream, and there’s also a short post-credits scene that is not completely without humor. If you liked 21 Jump Street, chances are you’ll love the sequel. I personally hope they make at least100 more. With jokes this constant, I could watch Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum pretend to be anybody. The plot doesn’t even matter, really. I just like to laugh.