Review: 22 Jump Street

Hill and Tatum, once again, prove to be an incredible comedic duo. (Columbia Pictures/aceshowbiz.com)

There have been very few comedies, or movies in general, that have surprised me in such a good way like 21 Jump Street did a few years back. It was such a perfect buddy comedy, and I never expected it to be so damn funny. So with a sequel coming out (the original made money, so this is a given), I was cautiously optimistic at the start. Then the trailers came out, and the really good reviews, and my hopes continued to go up, up, up. And after finally viewing the much anticipated return to Jump Street, I can safely say that this is not a disappointing second installment whatsoever. While I won’t say it’s superior to its predecessor, the bromance is as strong as ever, the jokes as frequent and funny, and an immense amount of fun.

The story picks up with Jump Street, now situated in sweet new digs (at a church with Vietnamese Jesus, not Korean Jesus) in another abandoned church, with Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum tracking a new case. When the first ten minutes of your movie have Jonah Hill doing some sort of Puerto Rican imitation, Tatum doing an even worse/hilarious one, and an octopus spraying into Hill’s mouth, you know you’re in for a good ride. Eventually, our two heroes get assigned a case incredibly similar to the one from their high school days in the first movie, but this time…in college. The directors take multiple jabs at themselves for making something exactly the same the way as the original, which is refreshing to see and hear from Hollywood – where studios act like films such as Transformers 2 are still incredibly unique.

But the absolute best and most prominent feature of the movie is the duo of Hill and Tatum. Somehow, someway, the chemistry between the chubby kid from Knocked Up and the star of Magic Mike is just perfection. The two play off of each other so well throughout the entire movie, and there are so many subtle or ‘throwaway’ jokes that heighten the film to new levels of hilarity. And really, how is Channing Tatum so funny? Not sure I understand how that happened. Regardless, I don’t know if there’s going to be a third Jump Street, but if there is, you can count me in. Because while 22 wasn’t quite as good as 21, it’s still better than almost any comedy I’ve seen recently.

 

22 JUMP STREET: (out of 4)