Bill O’Byrne’s Bargain Bin Blues: 22 Jump Street

22 Jump Street: $$$$$

• Directed by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller.
• Written by Michael Bacall, Oren Uziel, Rodney Rothman.
• Starring Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube.

Phil vs Bill
“Previously on 21 Jump Street …” The recap that opens this sequel to the reboot of the ‘80s crime drama hit that launched Johnny Depp’s career is more inspired than the movie (as are the ingeniously witty closing credits). Indeed, the biggest laughs come from the fun the film makers have with the concept of sequels and other Hollywood conventions than the undercover cop hi-jinks, which essentially are the same as before — only in a university rather than a high school. The humour’s just as undergraduate but fans will love the bountiful Blu-ray extras, including 40 minutes of deleted scenes and a commentary. — Phil Wakefield.

22 Jump Street works for pretty much every possible reason you can think of.

It’s straight out dumb funny, but it’s funny dumb smart.

It’s full of filthy comedy talent, and yet has a sweet heart to it.

It’s a sequel, and it never, ever stops letting you forget that. Even its closing sequence is a compendium of their upcoming adventures such as 26 Jump Street: Art School or 28 Jump Street: Veterinary School, just to name many, many more.

Somewhere in the bonus features – and there are a LOT of those on this Blu-ray version – one of the directors, the hive mind duo of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, says when it comes to sequels people want exactly the same movie as the first, and then they hate it because it is exactly the same. (The kind of sad fate that awaited Anchorman 2).

But as Deputy Chief Hardy (Nick Offerman) says in telling Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum to go undercover again after a spectacularly unsuccessful drug bust: “Do the same thing as last time. Everyone’s happy.”

So it’s kind of the same plot with some of the same gags. There’s the bit about how old they look compared to the other students, put into the mouth of the fantastic Jillian Bell.

As Mercedes the mean roommate she sticks it to Jonah Hill in a great run of How Old Are You lines, which if you watch the extras, you’ll see are mainly ad libbed.

Some goodies: “Tell us about the war. Any one of them.” And, “You probably haven’t run that fast since you played stickball in the field behind Old Pop Wiggleby’s sweet shop.” Here are some of them strung together. Well, quite a few. Spoiler alert thingy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8kfD-BhlKw

Bell, who was lucky enough to have nearly the right name for her character of Jillian Belk in the TV show Workaholics, is a gem. A fistfight she gets into with Hill turns very weird with her leaning in to kiss him between punches. It’s fantastically funny. And is it wrong to say just a bit sexy? Yeah, probably.

Hill is, as usual, his great take on the awkward, sensitive schlub. And at the risk of labouring the point somewhat, you can see in the making-ofs when they are ad-libbing dialogue, Hill is often the one throwing lines for people to use. He even cracks Ice Cube up with some of them. (Ice Cube is the Angry Black Police Captain and is funny as much when being terrifyingly silent as when he’s screaming in rage.)

No more Mr Nice Dude for Ice Cube.

And this leads me to a slight dissertation which occurred to me when watching the prison scene between Hill, Tatum and Rob Riggle, who plays Mr Walters, the bad guy who gets his dick shot off in 21 Jump Street. (And really, you DO have to see that to appreciate 22. No, you do. Don’t watch this without watching 21 first. Really. Don’t.)

Anyway, it is shot with three cameras, with a bonus one showing the crew just for their own jollification, I imagine.

Riggle, who has had his funzone rebuilt into a vagina, ad libs some fantastic stuff about the joys of having a hoo-ha in a men’s prison. Some horrible, nasty stuff, but it’s very funny. Hill and Tatum crack up again and again.

(Riggle makes a brief appearance in the only bit that’s after the credits. It’s worth watching, but funnily enough he isn’t credited in the movie.)

And that is the sort of the reason we’re getting masses of good comedies like this, and The 40 Year Old Virgin, Anchorman or the magnificent Step Brothers. Because there’s no film running through the camera with the tick tick tick of dollar signs making producers edgy, good adlibbers can dick around and rework scenes and come up with gold. (Plus Tatum and Hill were the producers here, so if they want to dick around I guess nobody’s going to say no.)

The cast and crew of 22 Jump Street dick around as much as the heroes.

But it means that for ensemble comedies this is the era of the great unbridling. And editors are really going to be driven out of their minds.

My only criticism is that at 1h07m it goes on a bit too long … in particular some of the frat boy stuff drags, but it’s taken three viewings for that to happen so it’s not a huge whine.

The other thing going on is the huge amount of homoerotic bromancing between Tatum and Wyatt Russell, his football teammate. (And son of Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn). It is relentless. Actually, it’s the mainstay between Tatum and Hill as well. Though possibly more in an emotional way.

Also, and it may seem a small point, but gunshot wounds. Shot through the upper arm and still able to hold onto a helicopter skid?

The last thing the world needs is an outbreak of fratboy fanboys shooting themselves through the deltoids with large calibre pistolas and then trying to hang off helicopters. I mean, look at all the coyotes scattered through the deserts of the American west that have been blown apart by dynamite or crushed by giant Acme anvils.

Sometimes the true effects of these things have to be shown in order to dissuade copycat silliness and I for one trust Hollywood will be more responsible in future.