22 Jump Street Review

• 3rd Jun 2014

The fear of any sequel is address right away in 22 Jump Street – The fact that it will repeat the original – but on a bigger budget. The worrying thing though – after an uneven opening sequences down at the docks with our dumb and dumber oddball best friends  – is that like most sequels that even play up the fact that they are repeating themselves and in pointing it out will create a sustained gag rate often falls flat after maybe 30 minutes or so.

And if you were to analyse 22 Jump Street from start to finish they do literally hit very similar beats. Yes they have a scene with their superior office who makes a running joke about the TV show it was based on. Yes they are assigned to an office run by the ferociously angry Ice Cube who further points out that they are literally doing the exact same case they did last time round, only at college.

Yes the boys make a pact not to fall out with each other. Yes both of them drop that ball thanks to the new friends and influences around them at college, and so on.

The bizarre thing about 22 Jump Street is that it for the large part all works! This is largely down to the central performances on screen.  Hill does early on threaten to get lost in his own babbling, but with Tatum on hand it isn’t long before the chemistry between the two sparks things into new and funnier directions.

Ice Cube makes a welcome and extended return this time round and steals some of the funniest face pulling and posturing you’re likely to howl at with laughter for some time.

The rate of the” laugh out” loud moments in this film simply embarrasses any other comedy that has come out this year so far, and the mix of all round humour in this film be it violent pranks, wordplay, character motivated or just a well written gag adds credence to the already growing stature of writer/directors Phil lord and Chris Miller.

The laughs hit at a 8 out of 10 scale. So many in fact you’ll have trouble recalling them all by the ends of the film – which also works well for re-watch value – which is rare in comedy indeed.

Don’t even think about getting out of your seat as credits roll as you are in for one hell of an extended treat as names hot the screen. And there is also a little extra at the end of the extended credits as well.

We advise avoiding trailers as we did so as not to spoil any jokes for yourself. If you enjoyed the first film then this one can’t miss.

 

 

Steven Hurst