When I went to the theaters on Monday, I went to see two movies.
I started off with Edge of Tomorrow, which I enjoyed immensely. I had a feeling that I would enjoy it. I didn’t know exactly how much that I would enjoy it. (Read the Review: Here) I wanted to leave on a lighter note though, and I decided I would finish the night off with 22 Jump Street.
I remember the first film bringing Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill together fondly, I also did a review of it. It wasn’t an amazing movie, but it was particularly entertaining and worthwhile. It is a rarity for the buddy-cop genre to bring anything that is, well, entertaining. However, 21 Jump Street succeeded in that category. It was a funny and outlandish movie. Two years later, it was time for a sequel, and the way that the trailers displayed it, the movie looked even better than the last one. The scenes focused primarily on the chemistry between the two main-protagonists, which was the best quality from the last movie.
The trailers also brought back the mocking self-awareness from the last movie. Deputy Chief Hardy explained that nobody wanted to see the first film happen, but they got lucky. And now, they would be bringing it back for a sequel with a bottomless budget.
22 Jump Street is a 2014 American action comedy film produced by and starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, like the last one, it was directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. As already established, it is a sequel to the 2012 film, which was based on the 1987 television series of the same name. The story brings the two cops back together for a journey that is meant to be exactly like the first one. This time, however, they will be in college and they have to find the dealers for a new drug called WHYPHY that is responsible for the death of a student on the campus. They start retreading the waters in a similar fashion to the last movie before they notice that things won’t be happening the same way.
Jenko makes friends with a pair of jocks named Zook and Rooster, before reveling in his inner-douche, meanwhile, Schmidt manages to get the attention of an art-student named Maya, and appears temporarily to have become a hipster.
The first thing that I noticed about this movie in-particular is a change in the humor. It feels as if they realized the redeeming qualities about the last film and decided to magnify them once or twice. It feels definitely a lot sillier and more self-aware of itself. There were little riffs in the last movie, most definitely, but this one takes it to a new level. The references that break the fourth wall have become more and more adamant, and a big part of the movie is making fun of the fact that it’s a sequel and therefore has to be inferior to the last one. Other-wise, the chemistry-driven humor between Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill has definitely enhanced itself. They both seem to have really found their groove, and I know for certain that I laughed more in this movie than I did the last. (which is impressive)
I can’t think of a way to really summarize how I feel about the comedic approach in this one. Here it goes: I like Memes a lot, and particularly, I like puns and observational comic-strips. When there’s a character in one of these comic-strips, they usually have the name “Derp” or “Derpita”. (Depending on gender) I liked that so much that it eventually became a word for me to describe something that is over-the-top ridiculous, or other-wise hilarious. It’s stupider than stupid’s stupidest stupid, and that’s why it’s funny. I love that humor so much, it has its own sort-of wit that is clever merely because it knows how stupid it is, and it knows how everyone will react to it.
This film is one of the derpiest around. There are moments that hit and there are moments that miss, but the moments that miss are done with such derpyness that it is hard to tell the difference.
Other-wise, the film also has a lot more depth and structuring for the characters. It isn’t so much as it has more development than the last movie, but it’s more to say that the “bro-mance” comedy-style has finally hit its highest point between the characters. The story isn’t interwoven with the most complex of stories. In-fact, that’s an understatement. Without Hill and Tatum, one would read the script for this movie and probably call it stupid, … and not in the good way. However, because it does have Hill and Tatum, it works as a very entertaining comedy.
The film never seems to take itself very seriously, and the repeating joke is that it only exists as a cash-in, and for some reason, it works. That’s the funniest quality about the movie. It shouldn’t, but it does.
In conclusion, it’s the kind-of movie where the movie and viewer are both in on a joke with each-other. It mocks buddy-cop films, and it does it well. At times, there is one funny moment after the next, and for that, I would consider it to be a terrific comedy film and a substantial improvement over the first.
Rating: – Good