Hello blogosphere! Another day, another review. Today, I'm going to be relaying to you my opinion of the new '21 Jump Street' sequel, radically named '22 Jump Street'. Considering the first one blew up cinemas way back in 2012, people have been pretty pumped to see what this next one has to offer. Did it live up to expectation? Did it fall short of the first movie? You'll just have to continue reading.
Did I end up enjoying it? Yes, I actually did. I have to admit, I was a bit dubious at first, considering the majority of sequels are a major suckfest, however this didn't seem to be the case. Was it exactly the same as the first movie? Pretty much, although that didn't really seem to bother me or the rest of the audience throughout the movie. Now, it's time for the age old question - was it as good as the first one? To be honest probably not, but that doesn't mean it wasn't a perfectly entertaining film on its own.
What exactly is it about? The film began as we reacquainted ourselves with undercover cops Jenko (Channing Tatum) and Schmidt (Jonah Hill). As hinted at the end of the previous movie, their former high school aliases Brad and Doug McQuaid are back, but this time, they're going to college. After a briefing with Captain Dickson (Ice Cube) at 22 Jump Street (the church located across the road from last year's headquarters), it seems that there's a new unknown drug doing the rounds called 'WHYPHY', which has recently killed a student on campus. And what exactly do they have to do? You guessed it, infiltrate the dealer, find the supplier.
Of course, this once again proves to be a challenge for the crime fighting duo, as the appeal of university life seems to get in the way. Again, it seems that the two have opted for different places on the social hierarchy, Jenko choosing to hang with and 'investigate' the jocks, while Schmidt socialises with the artsy crew, trying his hand at some slam poetry while getting closer to love interest Maya (Amber Stevens). When Jenko befriends fellow jock Zook (Wyatt Russell), it causes a rift in the relation between him and Schmidt.
So much so that they even need to get some impromptu counselling.
There's that, on top of the fact that they can't exactly pull off being the young, just-out-of-high-school type anymore, as relayed to them many times by sarcastic college student Mercedes (Jillian Bell).
And that ladies and gentlemen is where I choose to leave my plot retelling. Want to know more? I suggest you go see the movie.
As I said, I enjoyed this movie a lot. You can probably already see the overwhelming similarities to the first film, however it's not as if they don't poke fun at that fact throughout the entire thing. It also helps that the comedic bromance between Jonah and Channing is really strong, and brought back in full force for the sequel. The dialogue was entertaining and at some points even clever (shocker), and at no point throughout the film were you angered by their unoriginal plot ideas, as they were delivered so comically.
However, before you go and check out this sequel, I highly recommend you give the original a once over beforehand. Seriously, the abundance of self-referrencial jokes should not go un-understood (and yes, that's definitely a word), because they are seriously awesome. I mean don't get me wrong, the movie stands strong on its own, but the more jokes you understand the better your viewing experience will be. Plus, you'll appreciate it more when you see cameos from some familiar faces.
I have to warn you now, you must absolutely stay for the credits. I'm not kidding, I'm dead serious. No, it's not one of those 30 second tidbits chucked on to the end of a film to try and get you to stay for the entire ending, this is an entire montage of awesome. No, I will not tell you what it is (no matter how much I want to), I just urge you stay and watch the entire thing. The only clue I'm giving you is that there may or may not be a special guest appearance from Seth Rogen.
So that's officially the end of my review! I urge you to go and see this sequel as soon as possible, because it really is super awesome. I'm serious, go buy a ticket now! Til' next time . . .
Annabel xx
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