22 Jump Street is a sequel that relentlessly and wittily rips the concept of making sequels. The film pokes fun at the cliches sequels take on (retreading the same concept as the original, bigger budget, more explosions) while also embedding those same traits into its own DNA. The film takes essentially the exact same plot as 21 Jump Street-Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) are forced to go undercover at a local college to bust up a drug ring- and just lets the good times roll with non-stop laughs from start to finish. The script from Michael Bacall, Rodney Rothman and Oren Uziel is far too strong for the nearly-identical premise to become even remotely stale. The self-aware humor is razor-sharp throughout as the film not only rips on the blatantly rehashed story arc, but also allows for the actors to mock themselves. Tatum, Hill and Ice Cube all take shots at their personas and past film roles- with Tatum getting the best dig at himself with a brilliant allusion to White House Down early on in the film. When you have actors that are open to anything you throw at them and a script loaded with clever gags that mock stereotypes and traditional Hollywood formulas; the results are guaranteed to be spectacular.
Where 22 Jump Street manages to be exactly the same as the original is the strength of the pairing of Hill and Tatum. The chemistry that Hill and Tatum have is reminiscent of a very strong romantic pairing. The writers take advantage of the pair's rare chemistry by really playing up the bromance angle of the story here. They bicker like an old married couple throughout and have their fair share of hiccups in their relationship along the way, but by the end of the film, their bond is stronger than ever. Sound familiar? Since Jenko and Schmidt become closer this go-round, Hill and (especially) Tatum really take their performances to the next level. Tatum is infinitely more comfortable with his comedic chops in this installment than he was in the original. 21 Jump Street was his first true comedic role and while he did an outstanding job with the part, you could tell his skills weren't quite sharp enough to hang with a hardened comedy veteran like Hill. Here Tatum matches Hill's immense comedic presence in every single scene. Tatum seems to really have found his calling as a comedic actor and will hopefully delve into more roles in the genre outside of the Jump Street series in the near future.
Not to be outmatched by the comedy dream team of Hill and Tatum is supporting players Ice Cube and Jillian Bell-who manage giant laughs in every scene they're in. Ice Cube reprises his role as Schmidt and Jenko's stone-faced boss Captain Dickson with even better deadpan delivery than he did in the original. The plot twist in the middle of the film pushes Dickson into the forefront of the story and with this expanded role, Cube manages to garner some of the biggest laughs of the film including a freakout scene at a restaurant that is one for the ages. Bell-best known for her great supporting turn on Comedy Central's Workaholics-has only about 15-20 minutes of screen time here, but she makes the most of them as the snarky roommate of Schmidt's love interest Maya (Amber Stevens). It's great to see Bell get exposure in a tentpole film such as this. The masses will now get a chance to be acquainted with the uncanny scene-stealing ability Bell has displayed for four seasons on Workaholics. 22 Jump Street sets the bar high not only for 2014 comedies, but for all modern comedies. The satiric wit of the script, the brilliant ensemble of actors and the onslaught of laugh-out-loud moments are more than enough to make 22 Jump Street the finest comedic sequel of all-time.
4.5/5 Stars
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