Two years after their success in the Jump Street program, Morton Schmidt and Greg Jenko are back on the streets chasing drug dealers. They thought by going to actual college that they would be hunting down real criminals once again. However, unannounced to them, they were assigned to an online university, only looking for keywords and phrases during online lectures that might give off any indication of any illegal crime happening around the city. Eventually, they come across the meeting time and location of another powerful gang in the docks. However, after failing in the pursuit of a group of dealers led by the elusive Ghost, Deputy Chief Hardy puts the duo back on the program to work for Captain Dickson—now located across the street at 22 Jump Street. Their assignment is to go undercover as college students and locate the supplier of a drug known as "WHYPHY" that killed a student photographed buying it on campus.
At college, Jenko quickly befriends a pair of jocks named Zook and Rooster, two football player fraternity members that become the prime suspects of the investigation. Jenko starts attending parties with the jocks who do not take as kindly to Schmidt. Meanwhile, Schmidt gets the attention of an art student, Maya, by feigning an interest in slam poetry. The two sleep together, to the disapproval of Maya's roommate Mercedes, and it is revealed that Maya is the daughter of the vehemently disapproving Captain Dickson. Despite sleeping together, Maya tells Schmidt not to take it seriously, and he starts to feel left out as Jenko bonds more and more with Zook, who encourages him to join the football team.
Review:
Loaded with potential, 22 JUMP STREET is the sequel to the comedic buddy teamup (based on the 1980's Johnny Depp TV show) where Christopher Tatum and Jonah Hill posed as high schoolers to bust a drug dealer… Not only did it score at the box office, 21 JUMP STREET was actually really funny and involving, and the duo made a fantastic polar opposite team.
The first of many inside-jokes is when Ice Cube's grouchy Captain of the 22 Jump Street's new abandoned church location comments on how no one thought the first "reboot" (referring to the church within the movie, but not really) would actually work like it did... And now they're piling more money into this new one (again quasi-referring to the church)… Something sequels actually have to do to win over audiences, a second time.
The intentionally mirrored storyline of Hill's Schmidt and Tatum's Jenko in college lacks the suspenseful undercover element of keeping their identities secret: Not only do they constantly shrug off the mission at hand… finding the drug dealer that sold to a girl who fatally overdosed… but the students they're involved with are equally pointless and unmotivated.
Jenko bonds with a fellow football jock while Schmidt scores (much too easily) with a girl way out of his league. The twist on who that girl's related to provides some laughter but the joke gets old after a while. As do the bromantic metrosexual comparisons about the bickering cop-partners being in and out of a close relationship... You're straight but seem otherwise: We get it already!
The best scenes take place after the weary college story peters out… Not like it had any real juice in the first place… Hell, even their current psychedelic overdose is lame and contrived. So when the boys infiltrate Spring Break/Mexico there's a neat burst of overboard sequel-action to make us forget two things: 22 isn't as good as the first venture, and the first 3/4ths of this movie isn't very good at all.
The first of many inside-jokes is when Ice Cube's grouchy Captain of the 22 Jump Street's new abandoned church location comments on how no one thought the first "reboot" (referring to the church within the movie, but not really) would actually work like it did... And now they're piling more money into this new one (again quasi-referring to the church)… Something sequels actually have to do to win over audiences, a second time.
The intentionally mirrored storyline of Hill's Schmidt and Tatum's Jenko in college lacks the suspenseful undercover element of keeping their identities secret: Not only do they constantly shrug off the mission at hand… finding the drug dealer that sold to a girl who fatally overdosed… but the students they're involved with are equally pointless and unmotivated.
Jenko bonds with a fellow football jock while Schmidt scores (much too easily) with a girl way out of his league. The twist on who that girl's related to provides some laughter but the joke gets old after a while. As do the bromantic metrosexual comparisons about the bickering cop-partners being in and out of a close relationship... You're straight but seem otherwise: We get it already!
The best scenes take place after the weary college story peters out… Not like it had any real juice in the first place… Hell, even their current psychedelic overdose is lame and contrived. So when the boys infiltrate Spring Break/Mexico there's a neat burst of overboard sequel-action to make us forget two things: 22 isn't as good as the first venture, and the first 3/4ths of this movie isn't very good at all.
