As Nick Offerman’s character says in 22 Jump Street, no one gave a shit about the “Jump Street reboot” but it did well enough to be brought back again. Only everyone wants the exact same thing. Fortunately, this movie is smarter than to retread standard sequel ground.
After a illegal goods bust gone bad, Jenko (Channing Tatum) and Schmidt (Jonah Hill) are reassigned back to the Jump Street project, still under the direction of the angry black captain Dickson played by Ice Cube, to go undercover to college and investigate a new synthetic drug. Everyone emphasizes that Schmidt and Jenko are to do the exact same thing to crack the case.
Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller know well enough that standard sequel shenanigans won’t cut it after the meta-infused original that skewered the idea of Hollywood recycling and unoriginal ideas. As such, Lord and Miller turn their attention to the notion of second outings, and their built-in expectations of more of the first film but just enough to make it new.
On that front, 22 Jump Street is basically a copy of the original except with new jokes and emphasis on second films instead of remakes. But whereas the first film was largely centered around the pairing and partnership of Schmidt and Jenko, this film breaks down that partnership as the two gravitate toward different friends and social circles. Jenko is almost immediately accepted into the jock community after an impressive showing at football tryouts and, try as he might, Schmidt cannot keep up with that lifestyle and instead falls in with the angsty art kids.
But while the formula of the film isn’t largely different from its predecessor, Lord and Miller are fully aware of this and throw enough at the screen to make up. Everything from acclimating to college life, to those aforementioned angsty art kids, to pledging fraternities are showcased and lampooned all while driving the story of a dead college student and rampant drug use. In a more conservative movie, there might be a social message about the dangers of drinking in excess or drugs but there is no time for that in a Jump Street movie as the duo get into just about everything teens are warned of for the sake of a few dozen laughs.
The most important “message,” if you can even call it that in Jump Street Part Deux is of the relationship between Schmidt and Jenko as they drift away under the weight of other obligations and self-identity. But of course, at the end Jenko realizes his bro-mate Zook (Wyatt Russell) does not offer the same fulfillment he gets from Schmidt and Schmidt realizes the same from his group. And they come together to catch the bad guys and save the day, all through either incompetence or brute force depending on what is necessary.
But enough about story and messages and all that jazz since for all the self-realized limitations this sequel has against it, it delivers plenty of genuine laughs likely through just improv and screwing around on the set, especially between the leads (Tatum here continues to prove that he is far more talented than he gets credit for) and from breakout Jillian Bell whose jokes at Schmidt’s expense (and his crows’ feet). Unlike the majority of comedies that have a 5:1 ratio of jokes that fall flat to those that land, Jump Street fires on all cylinders, even through the end credits.
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