The action is bigger, the jokes are funnier and Ice Cube is louder.
I walked into my screening of 2012’s ’21 Jump Street’ with extremely low expectations. Feature-length versions of old TV shows are rarely a good thing and undercover adults going back to high school had been done so many times before. However, the film’s sharp and witty script mixed with the believable bromance between Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum made it one of Hollywood’s best surprise hits of the year.
This time around I was expecting a lot more from my trip to the cinema and therefore worried that I’d leave disappointed. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case.
This highly anticipated sequel sees goofy cops Schmidt (Hill) and Jenko (Tatum) dispatched on an undercover assignment to find a new drug named whyphy (yes, like the internet!). This time they’re off to college – where hilarious drunken shenanigans await them.
But the real story is about the relationship between Jenko and Schmidt. Jenko (the first in his family to pretend to go to college) becomes the star of the football team whilst Schmidt works hard to build a relationship with a beautiful student named Maya (Amber Stevens). With both becoming so preoccupied with their own lives, their bromance is truly tested.
Ice Cube, who plays an irritated detective, definitely deserves a mention. He has much more screen time than before and is responsible for some of the best jokes in the film. I must also mention the heaps of cameos that pop up, who (surprisingly) in no way feel forced into the script.
A lot of the gags throughout this movie are hit and miss – but, because they’re so frequent, before you’ve had the chance to think ‘that bit wasn’t very funny’ you’re literally laughing out loud at the next joke.
My biggest criticism is that 22 Jump Street is a little too self-aware. “Nobody cared about the ‘Jump Street’ reboot, but you got lucky,” says Nick Offerman’s character towards the start of film, and the self-referential nudging and winking doesn’t stop there. It happens a lot and becomes a little tedious.
But overall, this is one of the funniest films of the year. It may not have the surprise element of its predecessor but it’s just as good… if not better. I’ve not seen an audience respond so well to a comedy for a long time.
See 22 Jump Street and much more now. Visit www.showcasecinemas.co.uk for the latest up-to-date showtimes for Peterborough Showcase. You can also join the chat on Twitter @showcasecinemas or on Facebook by searching for ‘Showcase CinemasUK’.
Mikey Clarke
Genre: Action & Comedy
Cast: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube, Nick Offerman & Peter Stormare
Running Time: 112mins
Director: Phil Lord and Chris Miller (Directors of Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs &The Lego Movie)
See it if you liked: 21 Jump Street & Superbad
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