22 Jump Street (2014)

Well as I said in my review for A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, my family watched a couple of films for Thanksgiving, and unlike the other films, there was one that I had not seen yet, but was not in a hurry to see since, while getting a few good laughs from the first movie, I wasn't all that into these kinds of films. But I watched it all the same with the family, and this is the result.

Plot: After failing to arrest a group of drug dealers, Schmidt and Jenko are reassigned back on the 21 Jump Street program, which has now been changed to 22 Jump Street. So Captain Dickson assigns them to go undercover again, only this time they are going to college. Their mission is to find the drug dealer who is selling students a new drug called WHYPHY. But in the process, their relationship as partners are challenged when Schmidt falls in love with a student, and Jenko joins the football team.

This is actually, freaking funny. I'm just going to say that right off the bat. The first film was a nice movie that had some funny moments, mainly during the second act. But with its sequel, it's just nothing short of very funny. From what I've heard, people seem kind of split as to which is better between 21 Jump Street and 22 Jump Street, especially since they have the exact same plot and everything. For my money, it is no competition. This film was so much more funny hands down. 22 Jump Street for me was much smarter and well constructed with its humor, and they did a much better job with Schmidt and Jenko's relationship. Which is not to say that their relationship wasn't good in the first film, but they were just beginning to form a partnership then, and now we have them questioning it despite everything that they've been through together. Is what happens between them still cliched? Well...yeah, you pretty much know what's going to generally happen from beginning to end, especially since, again, it's the same story as the first film. But I think the chemistry between their bromance is much better here because it comes of much stronger and much more believable. And while the story is essentially the same thing as the last film, they do change a couple of things to their credit, and some of it really works for not just the story, but most importantly, for the comedy. Now does that mean that there aren't moments where they go too far with the jokes? Absolutely. It's honestly kind of expected at this point for there to be some sex related joke or something that I would not enjoy. But with the comedy as a whole, they felt much more clever and well delivered, and so because of that, I felt more comfortable with watching this film then I did with the last one in a way. Some jokes are good for a pretty nice laugh, but then you have moments like this one plot line that has to do with Schmidt and Captain Dickson, that will make me laugh, and it'll make me laugh hard. I will not DARE give anything away about it, but what they do about this plot line concerning them was so funny just on the idea alone. The more jokes for it we got, the funnier it got. And there's also the end credits which is also very funny. Both of these moments are definitely the highlight of the film personally. But that doesn't mean it wasn't enjoyable still with just its characters and action as well.

And that's my review for 22 Jump Street. It may still have some cliches, but where people debate on which of the 21 Jump Street films are funnier, my vote is on 22 Jump Street, no questions asked. Not all of the jokes work, but at the end of the day, I'm glad I say it, but even more, I'm glad for the laughs that it made that I think outweighs the comedy for the first film easily.

Rating: 85%