22 Jump Street

We all know that the sequels to surprise hit movies always suck; the list is way too long for me to talk about here but what I will focus on are the few that actually lucked up and got it right. The tallest task belonged to Terminator 2. How do you top a movie that turned Arnold into a global icon? You make him the good guy that's how!  You also realize that Linda Hamilton was actually really gross and was a part of quite possibly the worst sex scene in cinematic history, so you basically turn her character into a man in the sequel. And lastly, you give the new cyborg the ability to morph into any human it comes into contact with, essentially making him the male version of Mystique. These all turned out to be brilliant moves that helped make T2 one of the best movies ever made! Look at Lethal Weapon 2; they were forced to replace the imposing My Joshua (or Jake Busey's dad for all you kids out there) with white South Africans that hated black people and loved gold! Doesn't that describe all white South Africans, you ask? Yes it does but I would still have sex with and marry Charlize Theron. And no sequels list is complete without Die Hard 2. This movie makes it because it has the dad from Good Times in it and the edited for TV version has a Mexican man's voice dubbed over Bruce Willis' when he yells "Yippee ki yay Mr Falcon!!"

So as you can see, with some strategic tinkering you could possibly end up making one of the best action movies of all time. Well sadly 22 Jump Street doesn't fall into this category. Now I know that first and foremost it's a comedy but they also try and throw in some explosions and car chase scenes to make it an action comedy. And while they come close on both fronts, they do just miss the mark by attempting to be a little too clever at times. The plot is an exact replica of 21 Jump Street; Tatum and Hill have to go undercover to try and break up a drug trafficking ring, except this time they are in college. Now on the surface it sounds like the writers are being lazy but they are quite open about the fact that they know audiences want the same thing they saw in the original. They talk at length about sequels that try and go different directions and bomb as a result of it. They also mention the fact that they doubled the budget for this movie and even poke fun at Tatum's movie that came out last summer, White House Down. It all starts off very tongue in cheek but they just continue to go to the same joke over and over again. And that's how it is with all of their jokes; of which there are only three mind you. They make fun of how old they look over and over again and the same goes for the lame subplot of their friendship coming off a bit too much like that of a married couple's relationship.

They just beat these jokes into the ground so much that you eventually forget why you thought they were funny in the first place. Now I will say that Jonah Hill has a few good moments here and there in the movie. There's his poetry slam moment on open mic night, which sadly resembles what I used to see on a monthly basis here in East Austin. And there is also the hilarious subplot between him and Ice Cube that I will let you discover on your own. Ice Cube is once again awesome in his role and for whatever reason, he does some of his best acting in these Jump Street movies. Maybe he's just happy that he finally gets to drop F bombs again; I say it's high time for him to release another Westside Connection album. Tatum delivers on all of the action scenes, it just sucks that they felt the need to try and throw some silly jokes in the middle of a few of them that fell completely flat.

This wasn't a awful movie, it just wasn't that great either. In the end I was entertained and that's all you can ask for really, but I will have to give it a rating of kind of WEAK.