The lasting mileage, if there is any to be found for you personally, always comes from the characters themselves. Like all comedies, some jokes play really well the first time, some get better on repeat viewings, and some fall flat. '22 Jump Street' is one of the best comedy sequels in recent history while not only embracing what worked before (more meta comedy and story structure jokes), but also reversing character arcs. The world is no longer a fresh surprise to be discovered in a darkened cinema or living room, but holy crap, Lord & Miller have pulled it off again. What follows is an endless parade of jokes with, aside from the Do The Same Thing mantra, very few callbacks to the actual first movie, which I think plays well. Only this time, 'you bitches are going to college.' There, Angry Black Captain Ice Cube awaits with the new mission in his overpriced office. Except the Koreans bought back their church and the department moved across the street to 22. Schmidt and Jenko failed because they weren't doing that same undercover student thing they did the last time.

During a 'Bad Boys' style action sequence, 'half the port is destroyed' and the baddies make a clean getaway.Ī pretty bad day, brought on by one simple fact. And the studio convinced key cast and crew members to come back for a second outing.Īfter a 'Previously on 21 Jump Street' prologue, we're reintroduced to the best buddy bumbling cop duo of Schmidt and Jenko (Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum) as they get in over their heads with some serious baddies at the Metro City port. Still, it was a huge surprise to find an impossibly clever flick that blends modern cynicism with earnest characters with action-genre spoofing with overt commentary on Hollywood Studio filmmaking. Given the involvement of directors Phil Lord & Christopher Miller - the filmmakers behind 'Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs' - we should have had a little hope. Then there's '21 Jump Street', which felt like it came out of nowhere. Most modern (particularly comedy) TV-show-to-film adaptations are ripe with Look How Dumb The Original Show Was cynicism and they're not particularity good movies. But there's no way to imperially define it. Funny (aside from being incredibly hard work) is a bit like magic or lightning in a bottle. And so it goes that the Comedy Sequel may well be one of the hardest types of movies to make well. Sequels too are a dangerous beast to tame - balancing audience and studio and story expectations are pretty much impossible. Comedy is probably the hardest genre to execute consistently - tonal and pacing missteps can sink you without warning.

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