22 Jump Street

In the way way back of 2012 (2012 isn't really that long ago, but it kind of feels like it is), 21 Jump Street was released. Beyond the appeal of the casting decisions, I decided to watch the film on the strength of the handful of episodes I'd watched from the original 1980's 21 Jump Street series starring Johnny Depp. The film was a pleasant surprise and exceeded my expectations. Released in March (a time of year plagued by terrible comedies/films in general attempting to capitalize on the Easter/early Summer market) I was skeptical as to how the film would turn out. The film was well thought out and structured, with notable references to the original series. I also enjoyed how the film clearly wasn't just a Channing Tatum/Jonah Hill vehicle in that they really fit well with their roles and made them 3 dimensional.

So, I was happy to see that the film would be getting a sequel when it was announced in the June of 2013. And this optimism was not unjustified. I'm going to go right off the bat and say that I think that 22 Jump Street is the strongest of the two films. The comedy was even more self aware than the previous film (mocking the idea of sequels in a way that reminded me of similar material used in Scream 2) and even better chemistry between the cast members. Where 21 Jump Street was more slowly paced, 22 throws the audience in at the deep end (assuming that they have seen the first film, and saving a serious amount of time) and allows for further expansion of the characters and their individual plot lines than was possible in 21.

An element of the film I particularly enjoyed was the further mockery of the concept of film sequels during the closing credits of the film. Kind of a shame hardly anyone who was in the cinema actually stayed to watch the credits (I swear the woman two rows down from me literally dived out of her seat at the exact second that the film ended in order to get out first, people are weird) cause they another meta-layer to the films already  well constructed self aware reality. The ending credits feature Tatum & Hill going through a series jobs set by Jump Street during their police work. The jobs are showcased as being further sequels to the film (23 Jump Street, 24 Jump Street etc.) My personal favourite was "27 Jump Street" Culinary School in which Hill and Tatum play across from Bill Hader as some kind of evil chef. Amazing.