play hard? yes.) What worked with 21 Jump Street works again in 22 Jump Street. Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) must once again go undercover at MC State to bust another drug operation, this time called WHYPHY (work hard? yes. As Ice Cube says at the end of the first film, in which the two went undercover at a high school, the tables have been turned and they're going to college now.
This time around, they're going to college. But is that really a complaint? With 22 Jump Street, directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller (The LEGO Movie) have created a massively entertaining ride, with more antics from the characters we love, and better performances all around. Her character also has zero tolerance for Schmidt and Jenko's tomfoolery, and the way her character is introduced into scenes feels like its own record scratch, sarcastically mocking these boy cops who essentially are playing dress-up.Īlong with a somewhat-brilliant closing credits gag that won't be spoiled here, but which actively mocks franchise-building, Belle's harsh dismissals feel as if somehow Lord and Miller know that they're wasting their considerable talents on a flimsy premise that has exhausted its own well of jokes.If there's one criticism I have about 22 Jump Street, it's that the movie feels too similar to 21 Jump Street. She has one late scene, maybe the best scene in the movie, that absolutely skewers Hollywood's conflicting views on sex and violence. And while it's something of a sausage fest, many scenes are stolen by a young comedienne named Jillian Belle, who plays Stevens' pushy roommate and who immediately calls the aged-looking Schmidt on being a narc. It also allows for a few smart casting decisions, like the Lucas Bros., a comedy duo that play laid-back dorm twins Keith and Kenny Yang. The campus of the film never feels like the elaborate ecosystem of high school from part one, but maybe that's the point, in that it's a place much more difficult to navigate socially, allowing for added tension. Schmidt and Jenko end up at one slam poetry performance for very slim plot reasons- a scene that ends with Hill performing a rhyme off the top of his head, a gag that only underscores the film's weirdly belligerent attitude towards art students. Instead, a significant amount of time is spent with characters improv-ing back-and-forth to diminished returns, to the point where entire chunks of this film feel stitched up with outtakes. Another moment finds a chase sequences slowed to allow for a “Yakety Sax”-soundalike playing over a building named after a “Benjamin Hill,” which feels more MacFarlane than Looney Tunes. Miller and Lord lack the framing skills to make their absurdist jabs land, so these feel like botched opportunities: one joke invents the visual of an entire campus performing the “Walk Of Shame” but each time the lens stays fixed on Hill, neglecting the comic possibilities of a student body made up entirely of regretful hookups. You don't need to guess that Lord and Miller come from the world of animation, as many sequences feel like MAD Magazine brought to life. Walters (Rob Riggle) has coerced cellmate Eric (Dave Franco) into a sexually abusive relationship against his will. While there are some laughs that come from Jenko's sudden collegiate affection for gender studies, the film also stops short for an excessively ugly joke about how the first film's Mr. Larson's cut-the-bullshit casualness provided a brief respite from the testosterone-heavy theatrics, but here Stevens takes a back seat to repeated sequences of Schmidt and Jenko having “couples fights” where they address their friendship through the use of oblivious but excessive double entendres. Schmidt, meanwhile, falls for a coed played by the gorgeous Amber Stevens, who otherwise doesn't have nearly as much to do as the first film's love interest, Brie Larson. Instead, Jenko falls into hetero-love with a fellow frat brother played by the sinister-looking Wyatt Russell (Kurt's son, all chin), and the two of them guilelessly compare pecs and drink all night, even though this guy definitely seems like a potential suspect. The drug they are tracking is something called Why-Fy, and the investigation feels like it moves as slow as need be to allow for the characters and actors to play off each other, to the point where Jenko and Schmidt openly ignore obvious clues that would shorten the film considerably.