The wait is over! 22 Jump Street, the sequel to the hit movie-based-on-an-80's-show 21 Jump Street is now in theaters, and I caught it with my buddies on opening night. Going in to this movie, I didn't have very high expectations. It's tough for a sequel to replicate the success that it had in its first movie. So while I was very excited to see this, I didn't want to get my hopes too high. In addition to that, I didn't want to watch too many commercials or trailers before seeing it. Sometimes the funniest parts in movies are ruined by the overplay of ads they have of those lines/scenes. Sometimes its just best going in to a movie knowing nothing about it, and aside from the first red band trailer, and aside from the commercials they showed on TV, I knew nothing about this movie.
First and foremost, this movie is hilarious. It's just as funny as 21 Jump Street, if not funnier. I think this movie also makes better use of Ice Cube. Ice Cube's hilarious in this one and some of the films best moments include him. These guys are funny and they have good chemistry together. The movie makes self-deprecating comments about itself just like it did in the last one. It knows what it is. The best of these comments is a diss of Channing Tatum's White House Down, which was released last summer. Keep your ears open for that. I won't spoil any other funny moments, because what fun would that be? This movie also has some good and funny references to the first one.
Okay, now going outside of the comedy rating, there are some other things that need to be talked about. For example, the fact that this is exactly the same movie as the first one, except instead of being high school students, they are now college students. Look, I loved the college premise. And I think this movie is a lot of fun. But it could be even more fun if they had done some newer stuff with it. What people hated so much about The Hangover: Part II was the fact that it was the same exact movie as the first one. This movie does the same exact thing, however it seems like people are giving 22 Jump Street a pass. Now, there are worse things that a movie can do, but I think that this should be addressed.
A rather common thing in buddy-cop films, or movies or shows that feature two male lead characters is that they sometimes play up the whole "bromance" thing and parody a romance or a couple. In this movie, they hit you over the head with this. And while it has a couple funny moments, you just get sick of it because its cliche and not funny. It wears out its welcome pretty fast. It's just unoriginal and disappointing because I know these writers are capable of coming up with something better.
My last problem with the film is mainly the fact that the commercials gave away too much. With it being the same movie as the last one and seeing the commercials on TV, it lost its element of unpredictability and that took away some of the fun of it. It also ruined some funny jokes. So if you haven't seen any commercials for this movie, I urge you not to before seeing it, and you will likely enjoy it more than people that did see the commercials.
Despite the things that irked me a bit with this movie, I did like this movie. While it may not be as good as the first one, I am likely going to watch this several more times before I'm out of college. It is a hilarious movie and it was fun. Also, the last 5 minutes of the movie (the credits scene) are the funniest of the film. They made an effort of not having to make another sequel (which they totally still can if they want to squeeze out more cash and it could happen) and it features a cameo. I won't say anything else about it, except make sure you stay in your seat when the film ends because you will not want to miss this. In terms of humor, I don't know which of the two movies is funnier, but the fact that I don't know tells you that this one is dang funny. I just only wish that they would have done more with this film's potential. 7/10.
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