22 JUMP STREET – The Review

This week’s new entry in the Summer movie schedule has the distinction of pulling off the seasonal cinema trifecta. So, what’s this multiplex “hat-trick”? Well, number one, it’s a big studio action comedy. Number two, it’s a feature film remake of a decades old classic TV show. And the topper, number three, it’s a sequel. Usually TV adaptations are done in one, like THE A-TEAM and BEWITCHED. 22 JUMP STREET is the follow-up to 2012’s surprise smash 21 JUMP STREET, based on the late 1980’s Fox TV crime drama (created by THE A-TEAM’s Stephen J. Cannell with Patrick Hasburgh) that propelled Johnny Depp to stardom. But the flick from two years ago wasn’t a straight-faced, literal movie expansion. Taking a cue from 1987’s Dan Aykroyd/Tom Hanks starrer DRAGNET, 21 was a loving parody of the earlier cop show. Can Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum possibly milk any more laughs from that more than a quarter century old group of baby-faced small-screen undercover policemen? Time to head across the street to that new address and check out their new mission.

Police partners and BFFs Schmidt (Hill) and Jenko (Tatum) are still out on the streets busting the bad guys, or at least trying to bring em’ in. After a botched raid on a smuggling operation headed by the criminal mastermind known as “The Ghost” (Peter Stormare), the team is called in by Chief hardy (Nick Offerman). Because of the unexpected success of the revamp of the jump street program, the team will be reuniting and going undercover again to look into the overdose death of Cynthia, a local college student, the first victim of a new drug street-named “Whyy-Fyy”. The fellas head to the new HQ (another empty church across from the church at 21) and are given their new college freshman ID’s from the still gruff Captain Dickson (Ice Cube). Their experience at the college is almost the opposite of their high school one. Jenko’s popularity soars thanks to his football prowess and a “bromance” with star quarterback Zook (Wyatt Russell). Schmidt mourns the loss of his best pal, but embarks on a romance with one of Cynthia’s dorm neighbors, Maya (Amber Stevens), an artist/poet. Will the two cops be too distracted from their new relationships to stop the peddlers and pushers?

Much as in the first installment, the comedic chops of Tatum never ceases to surprise us. He’s a swoon-y dreamboat who seems to relish being a goofball. Amazingly, he may have scored two of the flick’s biggest laughs. Early on he shouts out the most inane, unhelpful suggestions ever to a comedy improv group and later when he finally grasps the source of a tense situation long after anyone else would (he punctuates this by hopping about like a gleeful pre-schooler that just spelled his first word). Jenko’s kind of a handsome action hero cross of TV’s Joey Tibbiani from “Friends” and Bullwinkle J. Moose. Forget another MAGIC MIKE, get this guy another comedy. His co-star Hill is now a comedy vet and his Schmidt is a blustery screw-up in classic mold of Bob Hope and Don Knotts as Barney Fife (Hmm… Schmidt often has an empty pistol). The guy’s all confidence with little skill to back it up particularly in a scene that has him creating slam poetry on stage as the audience gasps. Besides his chemistry with Tatum, Hill has a nice rapport with Stevens as the stunningly beautiful coed who sees something sweet in this buffoonish blowhard. Offerman is still the terse higher-up that gets the plot rolling, but he’s a pussycat compared to the glowering pit bull of a boss played by Ice Cube, Effortlessly intimidating, he scores big laughs when he totally loses his sh…er…cool and decimates a buffet. Unfortunately Stormare is given little to do besides threatening the guys and sending his henchman after them. But fortunately there’s several great scene stealers in the faculty and student body. The Lucas brothers are astounding as the completely in sync acroos-the-hall neighbors, the Yang brothers. But the movie’s secret weapon, its stealth bomb, might be Jilllian Bell, best known for TV’s “Workaholics”, as Maya’s wet-blanket, surly roommate Mercedes. Her deadpan gatling gun-like barrage of insults toward Schmidt may be the most consistently funny sequences in the film.

So yes, this is basically a rehash of the plot from the first film transferred to a new setting, college. That’s what most sequels do, but there’s a big difference here. 22 somehow knows it’s a sequel, acknowledges it,  and has endless fun with it along with the whole Hollywood tent pole/franchise mentality. Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, coming off the unexpected first blockbuster of the year, THE LEGO MOVIE, are having a lot of fun giving the big studios a kick (although a gentle one) in the pants, They’re helped considerably by the script from co-star/producer Hill working with Michael Bacall, Oren Uziel, and Rodney Rothman. The film still suffers from a problem that plagued 21 (and many recent comedies), that of a sluggish third act. 22 has 2 (two?!) big final chase endings, one that spills from campus to the football field, and the other that heads to a “south of the border” Spring-break locale. And both are complete with over-extended shoots-outs, car chases, and explosions that could be in any generic action thriller. Also a running gag about Schmidt and Jenko being mistaken for life partners rather than brothers wears out its welcome. But the cast is funny and the end credit sequences are terrific bits of parody, although the frat humor’s more raucous in the recent NEIGHBORS. So, if you can hang tight through the silliness (and Tatum’s comedic skills), you’ll be treated to some surprisingly sharp, smart satire by heading down the way to 22 JUMP STREET.

3.5 Out of 5