22 Jump Street Reviews

The first installment was supposed to be and should have been really lame but,  surprisingly, it turned out to be really fun  and enjoyable. With this sequel, it was pretty much the same,  there was no way that it could work as well and, yet, they did it again. Indeed, even though it was probably not an improvement on the first movie,  it was at least just as entertaining. Basically, this time, our heroes go to college going for another ridiculous investigation but, who cares about the plot,  it was once again another excuse to throw at us every 30 seconds some (usually) very funny meta-jokes. I especially enjoyed that they played around with the fact that there was actually something pretty gay about the relationship between the cops involved in the original TV-show. The only issue I might have had is that the running time was slightly too long for this material but it wasn’t a big deal. Right now, it seems that Phil Lord and Christopher Miller can do no wrong (indeed,  I have enjoyed all their directing efforts so far)  and their next one will be the Han Solo spin-off movie, easily their most ambitious project so far and I will definitely check it out. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, it was definitely not a masterpiece whatsoever but it was still one of the most enjoyable comedies I have seen for a very long time.

I didn't care for the first film that much, but it had it's special moments. Hopefully this one is better as I like the directors animated films. The one thing I didn't like about the first one and I'm sure I will not like about this one is Jonah Hill. He just isn't funny to me or even remotely interesting. Anyways I decided to give this one a shot despite everything. It has some great A-list cameos. This one actually has many laugh out loud moments even from Jonah Hill. I think it's funny the way they talk about their own police department with words that pretty much describe the movies. They give us a previously on such and such to kind of give the feeling of the television series this is based off of. In fact the make several jokes about their other works and such (you will catch them if you know their movies) which I always find amusing in comedies. The end credits has to be probably the best part of the whole movie though. I actually enjoyed this much more than the first one. Some great plot twists and turns. The fight scenes were hilarious and silly. Sometimes sequels can be better. I see Jonah Hill is finally growing on me. Still found him most of the time a bit annoying. Anyways it's worth checking out. It was really fun.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

I haven't seen the show, but I loved the first 21 Jump Street movie. Watching it was like being at a really wild party: a flurry of inspired jokes constantly subverting the hyperreality movies usually create. Imagine my disappointment, then, that that sensibility is completely lost in this sequel. The jokes this time around are few and far between.
On top of that, it's one of those sequels that simply repeats the original formula. Literally: it's almost exactly the same, beat for beat. The movie constantly makes it clear that it's aware of this, but it barely makes any effort to make fun of it. Most of the time, the same jokes are just blatantly recycled. So no matter how self-aware the movie tries to be, that doesn't make it any less redundant.
But thankfully, the climax saves this movie from being a complete disappointment. It's completely insane and over the top, and is packed with genuinely good jokes, so that's when it finally starts resembling the first movie. That last half-hour is the main thing I took away from this movie; I doubt I'll ever laugh so hard again this year. :)
Aside from that, there are some good parts along the way, like the twists involving the photograph and Captain Dickson. But with its reliance on copying from the first movie, as well as some all-too-familiar clichés, it's mostly just kind of a bore.

My rating: 50%