By Amy Eisen, news correspondent
Who would’ve thought a sequel to a comedy remake of a ‘90s cop drama would kill at the box office? But it seems anything goes now in Hollywood, as “22 Jump Street” opened last weekend, grossing an estimated $60 million. Neither the Stanley Cup nor the World Cup kept people away, and the sequel had the second-highest grossing opening weekend for an R-rated comedy (just behind “Hangover II”).
The movie picks up where “21 Jump Street” left off, with the bumbling police partnership of Jenko (Channing Tatum) and Schmidt (Jonah Hill). The duo are still incompetent and foolhardy, but lovable all the same. In a plot-line nearly identical to the first, they are sent back to school to bust a drug ring. This time, however, it’s college instead of high school.
Completely self-aware, the movie constantly pokes fun at itself and its reuse of storylines and jokes. Deputy Hardy, in a brief but thankful cameo played by Nick Offerman, even goes so far as to say that everything is worse the second time around. Jenko delivers a clever one-liner when hesuggests the duo infiltrate the Secret Service, a little knock at Tatum’s role in“White House Down.” The references to doubled budgets and inflated reboots are funny, to an extent, but also act as a defense by the writers to prove they aren’t taking themselves too seriously, which is pretty clear off the bat. Even in the opening scene, Jenko and Schmidt botch a drug recovery mission in every way possible, assuming horribly fake accents, mocking the villains’ facial hair and getting tangled up during an impossible car chase.
Sending the duo to college was a smart move, as that opened up a whole new slew of jokes to play with. Part of the surprise success of “21 Jump Street” was its high school stereotype humor, memorably how one-strapping a backpack makes you a cool kid. College is a whole new ballpark, and as Jenko proudly admits, he’s the first person in his family to pretend to go to college.
One of the best scenes was the montage of dorm room necessities, ranging from Q-tips and bean bag chairs to shower caddies and lava lamps. Unlike high school, where the roles were reversed and the football players no longer ruled the school, college is a chance for Jenko to be the popular one– which means Greek life. In a puka shell necklace and bro tank, Jenko plays pong and chugs beer from Solo cups while a dissed Schmidt, donning a scarf, befriends the hipster artist crowd and drinks wine from actual glasses.
Despite graduating from high school to college in the movie, Tatum and Hill are still over thirty years old and really can’t pass as students. Jillian Bell (of “Workaholics”) graces every frame she’s in, playing afellow college student who asks Schmidt to “tell us about the war. Any one of them.” The movie doesn’t ignore reality, and although it’s completely over-the-top, itat least it knows it is. Definitely worth seeing, “22 Jump Street” relies on a mix of clever references and lewd gags, as well as the perfect comic chemistry between Tatum and Hill, to deliver the laughs.
Photo courtesy EPK.TV
