I’m a big fan of the TV show 21 Jump Street, heck I think I’ve seen every episodes of the show during its original run. When it was announced that a movie version was coming to the big screen, I was bit a skeptical. I mean how are they going to turn a soap opera crime drama into a feature film? I remember reading online about the film’s early development, they were thinking of making it a full out action/adventure. Thankfully someone at the studio got smart and decided to make it into an action-comedy instead. After the big success of the first movie, a sequel was quickly greenlit and now we get to see more adventures of buddy cops Schmidt and Jenko.
This new movie picked up where the last one ended, Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) are still doing undercover work. They’re trying to bust a vicious drug dealer known only as The Ghost (the always entertaining Peter Stormare) during a sting, of course their plan didn’t go smoothly and The Ghost and his men got away. After the botched bust, both Schmidt and Jenko got demoted to the Jump Street unit, again. This time instead of going undercover as high school kids, they’re going to college. After a student at a local college was killed in what appeared to be a drug deal gone bad, both heroes were sent to the school to investigate.
Once they got to campus, Jenko was able to make friends quickly with the school’s football players, especially the team’s QB Zook (Wyatt Russell, yup he’s Kurt Russell’s son). Schmidt on the other hand is not a jock and felt he didn’t belong with the group, so he ventured out to a new area on campus and met a beautiful art student Maya (Amber Stevens). They hit it off quickly and later spent the night together at Maya’s dorm room. Since their work is to investigate who’s behind the drug dealings, Zook and Maya became their main suspects. Of course both Schmidt and Jenko had to go through lots of shenanigans before they solve the case.
Basically the plot of this movie is exactly the same as the previous one, but that’s not a bad thing. Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller did a good job of moving the plot along and didn’t linger too long on some of the jokes. Although I wish they’d cut back on the self aware aspects of a sequel, yes we get it, the movie is a sequel and you might not able to top the original. I thought the jokes worked at the beginning but as the movie progresses, they became a bit tedious and I kind of got annoyed by all of those self-aware references.
Hill and Tatum have a great chemistry and the movie works because of them. Tatum’s Jenko joined the football team and became a star and he’s now questioning whether he made the right choice by becoming a cop. Hill’s Schmidt on the other hand, he’s right back being the nerd again and feels he didn’t belong with cool kids. I also like the supporting cast, including the love interests Zook and Maya. Yes you heard it right, Wyatt Russell‘s Zook was sort of a love interest to Tatum’s Jenko, they had this bromance going on throughout most of the movie and of course that made Schmidt jealous. Ice Cube also returns as their always angry Captain Dickson. A little plot point involves him and Schmidt might be the funniest gag in the movie. Nick Offerman again appeared in a brief scene as Chief Hardy and he delivered some of the funniest lines in the movie.
Overall I thought this was a good sequel and I think I might liked it better than its predecessor. It has some laugh out loud moments and everyone seems to have a good time in the movie. What I found a bit surprising was how tame it was for an R-rated comedy. Considering the story took place in college, I expected to see lots of nudity and gross humor. But with the exception of some F-bombs and some mild violence, the movie contained no nudity or any toilet humor and it’s quite “clean” by today’s R-rated comedy standards.
If you enjoyed the first movie then I’m quite sure you’ll have a good time with this one. It’s recommended if you’re in the mood for some good laughs.
What did you think of 22 Jump Street?
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Nice review and my review of it is very similar. Agree with you completely that the bit with Ice Cube was one of the funniest moments in the movie. It got the most laughs at the screening I went to. I did think the movie was slightly too long, but had a blast watching it. Actually wouldn’t mind to see a third movie.
Thanks Nostra, yeah the sequence with Ice Cube got lots of laughs at the screening where I went too. I’m pretty sure we’ll get to see 23 Jump Street in a couple of years since it made quite a bit of money over the weekend.
Nice review Ted. Such a funny movie. The first may be a bit better in my eyes, but this one still comes pretty damn close.
Thanks Dan, yeah I had a blast with this one.
No nudity?! WHAT! Well, I’m not watching this anymore!
Yeah I was surprised how tame it was compare to other R-rated comedies. I thought for sure the movie would contain lots and lots of T & A, ha ha.
Mwahahaha! I knew someone’s gonna be disappointed by that 😉
Nice review Ted. This thing has certainly attracted a crowd which I kind of expected. Unfortunately it’s not for me. I hated the first movie and couldn’t even make it through it. This sounds like the same thing except in college. Considering that I bet this one wouldn’t work for me either.
Thanks Keith. Yeah if you didn’t care for the first movie, you won’t like this one.
Nice review, Ted. I think I also liked this one better than the first. 🙂
Thanks Chris, same here. I thought this one had more laugh out loud moments than the first one. I was a bit surprised how much I enjoyed it.
Yeah I enjoyed this too. It was more of the same, but the jokes were funny. I guess that’s the mark of a good comedy.
I know, it’s been a while since I saw a good comedy and I had a blast with this one.
I watched the first one on DVD and i think it was funny, but watching the second one in the theater with a bunch of other patrons just ramped up the hilarity (i think). I unexpectedly liking this more than i should XD
Yeah same here, I didn’t expect it to be as good as the first one but I was laughing my butt off.
Good review, Ted. I hope I like it as much as you when I finally see it. 🙂
Yeah James hope you’ll enjoy it too! It’s a fun movie.
I initially thought that Zook was actually going to turn out to be gay so I totally get what you mean on the love interest angle. I didn’t realise he was Kurt Russell’s son but you can really see it.
LOL, I’m always wonder if the filmmakers wanted us to believe that Jenko is gay or what, he didn’t have a female love interest in the first movie and again in this one, he’s close with a male character. But yeah Jenko and Zook bromance was pretty funny. Yeah I believe Goldie Hawn is his mom, which explains the blonde hair.
I found the first film hilarious, so I’m dying to see this one. Probably have to wait until DVD, but your review has me all the more anxious to get into this!
Hope you’ll enjoy it too Andrew, it’s definitely a fun movie.
Great review Ted. This one didn’t quite live up to the first movie for me but I still had a lot of fun with it! Ice Cube was very funny and there are tons of self-referencing laughs! Loved the end credits. Kind of hope that they make Medical School! 🙂
Thanks! Considering it made a lot of money at the box office, I’m pretty sure we’ll see more adventures of Schmidt and Jenko. ha ha.
Fingers crossed! Looking forward to Jump Street Dance Academy 😉
The film is hilarious. Tatum and Hill work so well together and to be honest my favourites scene where with them and Ice Cube.
Great Review Ted 😀
“We Jump Street, and we ’bout to jump in yo ass. Jenko: Mmmm-hmmm. Schmidt: Right in the crack.”
Thanks Tim! The scene with Ice Cube got a lot of laughs from the audience.
Great review! I want to see this and nice to hear that they didn’t mess up the sequel and ruin the first one for us.
Thanks! I think they were smart to not trying to do anything new for the sequel, just sort of making fun of the fact that they’ve made a sequel and it worked. I just wish they toned it down just a bit.
I think you are right, had they try to do something different or even serious the whole thing would have bombed. Well it was Spring Break! They had to get crazy lol. 🙂
Solid write-up Ted! As a person who never watched the show with a very young Johnny Depp, I can’t say I can compare the movies’ grasp of the source material, but it’s quite obvious these are two different generations of entertainment. All the same, I think you are absolutely right about the studio making the smart decision of turning this into an action-comedy instead of sticking to its original genre. The comedy helps engage a much larger audience for what must have been a pretty popular TV show.
Thanks Tom! It’s a smart move for them to make the movie version into a comedy, had they try to make it closer to the TV version, it would’ve been a disaster. The show was kind of like an after school special drama with some action add to it and it worked for that era. It won’t work for this generation of movie goers. I even remember they tried to convince Depp to reprise his role from the TV show and he would be some sort of a mentor to the younger undercover cops. It’s ridiculous idea and I’m glad they went with this version.
I think they learned their lesson from the dreadful The Mod Squad movie.
Sounds like a blast, Ted. Dare I say I haven’t even seen the first film yet! I’ll get to the Jump Street movies one of these days.
Yeah it’s definitely a fun movie, I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did. Do check out the first movie, that one was fun too!
I prefer the first film, but this one is also a lot of fun. I’d give it 3.5/5 as well.
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