By Kendra Ng & Reuben Dhanaraj
Channing Tatum having been best known for his roles in The Vow, Step Up and Jonah Hill who has earned two Oscar nominations for Moneyball and The Wolf of Wall Street, are back with a bigger and louder sequel to the acclaimed 21 Jump Street.
22 Jump Street is a $50 million comedy sequel brought to you by Columbia Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Scripted by Michael Bacall and Oren Uziel and directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller; tongue-in-cheek self-referential playfulness gleefully colludes us with the use of split-screen and other inventive gags making for a fiery dynamic sequel.
Jenko (Tatum) and Schmidt (Hill) are headed to a local college after making their way through high school twice. Whilst Jenko hangs with the jocks and Schmidt infiltrates the Art majors; they have to crack both the case and decide if they can have a mature relationship.
The film’s subtext and thematic leanings leaves the audience with a recognition of its tweaked repetition and garners laughter. Whilst it isn’t lifted wholesale from the original, the constant snippets prove to move in considerable tandem. Infused with a smattering of raunchy gags involving sex toys and male appendages; the all-embracing sweetness of the script trumps the crudity.
Tatum’s and Hill’s fantastic on-screen chemistry propels the picture through the occasional lulls and Bacall and Uziel have a ball of a time amping up the homoerotic undercurrents that fuel through the nonstop action. From O’Shea Jackson playing Ice Cube to the cameos being peppered throughout, you couldn’t ask for a better cast. Stand-outs will include Peter Stormare who plays a killer badass like nobody else can. A hilarious continuation to its predecessor, it will release on the screens 19th June 2014.
