Film Review: 22 Jump Street

Copyright: Columbia Pictures/MGM
It took this film about three minutes to make me laugh really hard (Mexican Wolverine reference), and later on, it managed to do the same thing a few times more. The rest of the time, 22 Jump Street provides solid humor all around, which makes it one of the better comedies of 2014 so far.

Phil Lord and Christopher Miller didn’t spend too much time thinking about the set up of their sequel of the 21 Jump Street, a comedy about an odd pair of cops who go undercover to a high school to investigate a drug dealing ring. This time, they do the same thing on a college campus, and here the plot ends.

Apart from a similar (better said, equal) setting, the film also operates on the same platform of extreme difference between Schmidt and Jenko, this time in a frat house kind of environment. Once again, a weird drug called "WHYPHY" begins to circulate and cause deaths, so the pair have a new assignment. 

Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum kept holding on to their specific chemistry, and they are the sole reason (apart from a good, but not a spectacular script) why this carbon copy of a film continues to work.

Hill, who already proved himself as one of the key comic actors of his generation, still provides perfect delivery, while Tatum (who honestly does look a bit like a potato, sorry Chan my Man) provides a kind of wall from which Hill can bounce his jokes off. This doesn’t diminish Tatum’s potential or talent, because I believe it’s hard to keep up with Hill, but he successfully does this throughout the film.

Other actors who are really noticeable in the film include Ice Cube (especially once he finds out the stuff he shouldn’t have found out) and a terrifyingly maniacal Rob Riggle in a very small but still impressive role as the jailed former nemesis of the main protagonists.

22 Jump Street full movie, thought its entire length, presents an unending stream of humor, and doesn’t try to do anything else. This fact, along with being based on the great Hill/Tatum chemistry, produced a very hard-hitting comedy, which even manages to ridicule itself brilliantly at the very end.

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