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22 Jump Street poster

CAST
JONAH HILL
CHANNING TATUM
JILLIAN BELL
ICE CUBE
THE LUCAS BROTHERS
NICK OFFERMAN
WYATT RUSSELL
AMBER STEVENS
PETER STORMARE
JIMMY TATRO

BASED ON THE TELEVISION SERIES WRITTEN BY
STEPHEN J. CANNELL
PATRICK HASBURGH

STORY BY
MICHAEL BACALL
JONAH HILL

SCREENPLAY BY
MICHAEL BACALL
RODNEY ROTHMAN
OREN UZIEL

PRODUCED BY
JONAH HILL
NEAL H. MORITZ
CHANING TATUM

DIRECTED BY
PHIL LORD
CHRIS MILLER

GENRE
ACTION
COMEDY
CRIME

RATED
AUS:MA
UK:M
USA:R

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MOVIE POSTERS

TRAILERS & CLIPS

22 JUMP STREET (2014)

22 Jump Street ups the bromance between Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill to a new level, yet forgets that a great buddy cop movie needs quality action to go along with the gut busting laughs.

The usual adage is the more fun had on the movie set, the worse off the finished product. 22 Jump Street is an exception. Directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, 22 Jump Street is filled with a fun spirit that resonates through its many improvisational touches and self-depreciating humour.

At times it does so a little too much, with the return of Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill as undercover cops Jenko and Schmidt not without many a clunky moment. Thankfully there keenly honed give-and-takes make up for it.

As cheekily stated throughout the film, the premise of 22 Jump Street is just like that in 21 Jump Street, yet this time Jenko and Schmidt have to infiltrate a college campus in order to find the supplier of a new drug that’s driving kids crazy to the point of death.

Yet this time the bromance that made 21 Jump Street such a hit has fallen on a rocky times, with this dynamic duo torn apart by the pressures of college life.

Lord and Miller cleverly skewer the macho interplay of buddy cop movies (perfectly exemplified in the likes of Lethal Weapon and Point Break) by presenting this cop partnership as a marriage in crisis. Tatum and Hill are both game, repeating that easy chemistry shown in the first film while willing to let things get a little awkward in the name of comedy.

The pair is also more than willing to make fun of the fact that they’re starring in a film, that’s a sequel, to a remake, that contains the same plot structure as its predecessor.

It takes confidence for filmmakers and their star players to poke holes in the very reason why there film exists in the first place. (Here’s a clue: It’s not the artistic integrity).

It’s also a shame that for a buddy cop movie 22 Jump Street is not particularly good in the action stakes, with anything close to an action sequence played as something more akin to a comedy sketch with a gun-shot as the punchline.

Yet generating laughs is what 22 Jump Street successfully does and does well, whether it is by poking fun at itself, or through the funny back and forth between Tatum and Hill. 22 Jump Street is not as good as its previous address, yet is a good sequel never the less.

***
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