"Just do the same shit you did last time," Captain Dickson (Ice Cube) tells partners Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum). "That's all anybody wants to see."
Part of the genius of 22 Jump Street is that directors Phil Lord & Chris Miller know this is a sequel and rehash the plot of 21 Jump Street with a wink while still subverting expectations at every turn.
Recruited back to undercover work, Schmidt and Jenko return as brothers who try to infiltrate a drug smuggling ring at Metro City State. Part of the joy of their first pairing was seeing them try fit into roles that didn't suit them "” Schmidt being suave and Jenko as the nerd. Part of what makes this outing superior is that it better reflects college, where identities are forged, sometimes at the expense of old friends.
Schmidt finds himself caught up with the art students, and particularly attracted to Maya (Amber Stevens). Jenko turns to the football and fraternity life, and there's a great running gag "” that unfortunately the film is too shy to follow through on "” that the quarterback (Wyatt Russell) likes him more than just a teammate and Jenko maybe, possibly, reciprocates.
22 Jump Street is the most self-aware comedy since Tropic Thunder, and it is relentless in its jokes. Luckily, its shooting percentage is like the Spurs in Game 3 of the NBA Finals "” off the charts. And it's not always the easy jokes about bodily functions and stereotypes.
There are repeated jokes about how unnecessarily expensive this outing is. "I'm wearing $800 shoes, and you can't even see them behind this desk," Dickson says at his ridiculously posh command center. Later, a car chase goes right through a sculpture garden. And there's a final climactic chase that involves both a Lamborghini and a helicopter.
Once again, Lord & Miller (who also directed The LEGO Movie) have done stupidity brilliantly. Their visual style perfectly matches the go-for-broke comedy of the script, co-written by Hill. There hasn't been a funnier movie all year, and I'm not sure there will be.
