One of the things I love best about Phil Lord and Chris Miller is how much they remind me of Brad Bird. Before directing 2011's Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Bird had directed three films - all of which were animated. But instead of forsaking what he learned from his long tenure in animation, Bird utilized his remarkable skill of balancing and intermingling compelling story lines with brilliant action sequences in such films as The Iron Giant and The Incredibles and created one of the most exciting action movies of that year. What allowed him to do this was that he didn't treat his first live-action feature any differently than he did his animated features. With 22 Jump Street, Lord and Miller have now directed four films - two animated and two live-action. And like Bird, the key to their success lies in the fact that they treat all of these movies the same way. From Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs to 21 Jump Street to The Lego Movie, Lord and Miller are two brilliant jokesmiths who are both deeply knowledgeable of the pop culture zeitgeist and experts in layering gags of countless varieties. Be they meta jokes, visual jokes, referential jokes, throwaway jokes or jokes that are incredibly elaborate and carefully orchestrated, Lord and Miller are becoming two of the best in the business at taking what could easily be franchise dreck and turning it into something wonderfully entertaining.
Like many animated features, 22 Jump Street is constructed on the foundation of extreme self-reference. Lord and Miller's 21 Jump Street mocked the idea of a creatively destitute Hollywood pulling an '80s TV show from the grave in an attempt to sell it to an audience who probably couldn't care less, and then did exactly that. Now, the sequel kicks it up another notch commenting not only on repeating old formulas, but also on the benefits of working with a much more exorbitant (though not unlimited) budget. After a successful investigation going undercover as noticeably mature high schoolers to bust up a drug-ring in the first film, Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) now attempt to ride that success (and a souped up muscle car) to the streets. However, after a terrific failure their hopes are demolished (along with that souped up muscle car) and they are sent by Nick Offerman's Deputy Chief Hardy to the Vietnamese church across the street from the Korean church that served as the base of operations in the first film. There, in a much nicer office, the threatening Captain Dickson (Ice Cube) gives the duo their new mission - going undercover to bust up yet another drug-ring. But this time it's as noticeably mature COLLEGE STUDENTS. "Just do the same shit as last time," he tells them.
While 22 Jump Street largely shields itself from criticism by commenting on its own microwaved reheating of 21 Jump Street, Lord and Miller make sure to include tons of college-specific humor on top of it. Mirroring the rift that formed between Schmidt and Jenko in the first film when Schmidt got in with the popular kids and Jenko was relegated to associating with the science nerds, when the pair move into their freshman dorm room they begin to fall into disparate groups - but this time in the way you'd expect. Investigating a new drug, "WHYPHY" (Work Hard Yes, Play Hard Yes), which bestows four fours of Adderall focus and then four fours of acid trippyness and led to one student's death, Jenko bro-friends Metro City State's starting quarterback Zook (Wyatt Russell) and is recruited into his fraternity. Schmidt, on the other hang, simply cannot hang and winds up spending his time with the art majors including Maya (Amber Stevens), who was the dead student's roommate and who now lives across the hall. Once again the partners find students who use the drug and others who deal the drug, but remain woefully in the dark about the supplier.
So, yeah, basically the exact same thing that happened last time (and 22 Jump Street is the first to admit it). Lord, Miller and screenwriters Michael Bacall, Oren Uziel and Rodney Rothman run the gamut of self-reference. From call backs to the first film and all the way back to the TV series, to references to the typical and often ridiculous repetition and excess of sequels, no meta stone is left unturned. Even the economics of filmmaking is lampooned in a particularly hilarious car chase where Jenko and Schmidt attempt to drive a helmet-shaped golf cart through less expensive areas of the campus in an attempt to save their department money. Still, a sequel being aware of its own rehashing doesn't necessarily make that rehash good or that self-awareness fresh.
Which is where the final portion of the film and Hill and Tatum's chemistry comes into play. After someone Jenko and Schmidt feel is wrongly accused and convicted for the drug crimes at MC State, the duo decide to pair up one last time for a Spring Break trip down to Mexico in an attempt to catch the real culprit - and it's pretty much insane. Hostages, shootouts, bare-knuckle brawling, chases on foot and in beautiful sports cars, helicopters, grenades and tons of barely-clothed college students drinking, doing drugs and god knows what else are all in full force and, more often that not, hilarious. And when the film does threaten to go a little too far down the self-referential rabbit hole, Hill and Tatum are there with the type of buddy cop chemistry that never gets old. A study in contrasts, the film has endless fun treating the partners like an old married couple who are constantly bickering but work the best when they're together. Hill has always been a particularly strong comedic actor, especially when given someone great to play off of (something he gets in spades with Tatum who has a face that is fantastically blank much of the time). I've also always found Tatum to be a much stronger lead in comedies as opposed to dramas. He has this casual wit and childlike excitement that is completely contagious.
While 22 Jump Street's meta-commentary doesn't have anything particularly insightful to say and some of its jokes are overly juvenile and kind of just lie there, its ability to cleverly comment on sequels while being, for the most part, an immensely fun and entertaining sequel in its own right is terrific. It's a film that squeezes ever drop of humor it can get out of its leading men and the idea of a sequel for such an unnecessary franchise. And with the likes of the second and third Hangover films already out there as well as all of the putrid-looking trash whose trailers precede 22 Jump Street on the way, it's incredibly refreshing to have a movie that's in on the joke while having jokes that are actually funny. But let's just leave 23 Jump Street under construction, okay?
8 out of 10
