22 Jump Street

The dream team are sent back to recapture their youth all over again in this follow up to 2012’s 21 Jump Street, but this time they’re going to college. Cops Jenko and Schmidt are sent to annihilate the latest DIY drug supply – W.H.Y.P.H.Y. (Work Hard? Yes. Play Hard? Yes.) – paving the way for a good joke or two centred around its homophonic partner. But then Jenko meets his kindred spirit on the football pitch, and the pair’s brotherhood is put to the test. Things get heated, stuff is said that isn’t meant, doors are (metaphorically) slammed, and the two separate – job failed. After a period of grief and mourning, they reunite to give it another go during spring break, and then the real action begins.

Same premise, same goal, same obstacles. But 22 Jump Street does not suffer from its repetitive nature, rather it exploits it for comedic value – just as 21 Jump Street did with Johnny Depp and Peter DeLuise cameos. By now Jenko and Schmidt have well established themselves as the dysfunctional, comedic cop duo, the hard work is done in that field. All that is left is to continue their mischievous adventures in order to satisfy the fans, which Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill (Jenko and Schmidt respectively) do with such ease and zeal that their joy is infectious.

Just shy of two hours, the plot is far from sharp or concise, but what is lost in storyline is more than made up for in comedy. Timing and delivery are perfectly executed. Camera angles, sound effects and editing form the ever-present background narrator, cutting jokes all of their own. But the real standout quality of the film is the balance of strength and character that Ice Cube adds to the Tatum and Hill dynamic. Ice Cube’s Captain Dickson cuts against the feeble, nerdy Hill and the boyish humour and muscular solemnity of Tatum, creating grounds for non-stop electric, cut-throat comedy.

Alex Finch 

22 Jump Street is released nationwide on 13^th June 2014.

Watch a trailer for 22 Jump Street here: