22 Jump Street sends Schmidt and Jenko back to school, and the joke is that school has changed. The 2014 sequel to 21 Jump Street moves the pair from high school to a college campus, where they pose as students to find who supplied a synthetic drug called WHY-PHY. The tagline says it plainly: “They’re not 21 anymore.”
Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the film runs 112 minutes and lands in crime, comedy and action at once. Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum return as Schmidt and Jenko, with Ice Cube as Captain Dickson and Peter Stormare as The Ghost.
Trailer, via Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Two Years After 21 Jump Street
Two years after the events of 21 Jump Street, Schmidt and Jenko are on the streets working narcotics. They fail to catch a group of dealers led by The Ghost, and Deputy Chief Hardy responds by putting them back in the undercover program.
Captain Dickson now sits across the street at 22 Jump Street. The new case: find the supplier of WHY-PHY, a drug that killed a student photographed buying it on campus. The pair enroll as college students. It is the same trick, one rung up the ladder.
Zook, Rooster and the Football Team
At college, Jenko falls in with two jocks, Zook and Rooster, who quickly become the prime suspects. Jenko starts going to parties with them. Schmidt does not fit in with that crowd.
Jenko also grows close to Zook, who pushes him to join the football team. The friendship is the film’s real engine. Jenko finds a kindred spirit, and the partnership that carried the first film starts to look optional.
Maya, Mercedes and Captain Dickson
Schmidt takes a different route. He fakes an interest in slam poetry to get the attention of an art student named Maya. They hit it off and sleep together, which annoys Maya’s roommate Mercedes.
Then Schmidt learns Maya is Captain Dickson’s daughter — after he has already bragged to Dickson about “getting laid.” Maya tells him not to take it seriously. Schmidt, meanwhile, feels left out as Jenko bonds with Zook.
The cast around the leads is deep:
- Peter Stormare as The Ghost
- Wyatt Russell as Zook
- Amber Stevens West as Maya
- Jillian Bell as Mercedes
- Ice Cube as Captain Dickson
- Nick Offerman as Deputy Chief Hardy
- Jimmy Tatro as Rooster
- Keith Lucas as Keith Yang and Kenneth Lucas as Kenny Yang
A Prison Visit and a Tattoo
When Schmidt and Jenko cannot identify the dealer, they visit Mr. Walters and Eric in prison for advice. Eric is in a forced relationship with Mr. Walters, who received a vagina after Schmidt shot his penis off.
Walters spots a unique tattoo on the dealer’s arm in the photograph. Later, while hanging out with Zook and Rooster, Jenko sees that Rooster does not have the tattoo — but Zook does.
That is the case cracking open, and it is the cleanest piece of plotting in the film. The football friendship was never just a friendship. The suspect Jenko liked most is the one he should have been watching.
What the Sequel Gets Right
22 Jump Street was written by Michael Bacall, Oren Uziel, Rodney Rothman and Jonah Hill, and produced by Hill and Tatum. It premiered in New York City on June 4, 2014, and opened in the United States on June 13 through Columbia Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures.
Filming ran from September to December 2013 in New Orleans, Louisiana, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Plans for a sequel began the week the first film came out. Miller and Lord confirmed they would return to direct in July 2013.
The film grossed $331 million worldwide and drew generally positive reviews. Metacritic puts it at 71 out of 100. A third film, 24 Jump Street, with Hill, Tatum and Cube returning, is in development.
Why 22 Jump Street Falls Short
The sequel’s best idea is that the partnership is the case. Schmidt and Jenko do not just have to crack the drug ring; they have to decide whether they can have a mature relationship. The film states this outright, and it is the right target. The first movie was about two overgrown adolescents learning to work together. This one asks whether they can grow from freshmen into real men.
The college setting gives the comedy room to breathe. The football team, the art majors, the slam poetry, the roommate who hates Schmidt — each is a station on the same route. The prison visit is the strangest stop and the funniest, and it earns its place by handing over the tattoo that closes the case.
What holds 22 Jump Street back is repetition. The undercover-at-school premise is the same premise, moved one campus over, and the film knows it. The running joke about sequels being bigger and more expensive is smart, but a joke about doing the same thing again is still doing the same thing again. The middle stretch, with Jenko at parties and Schmidt sulking, sags before the tattoo lands.
The new faces help. Wyatt Russell’s Zook is a genuine threat dressed as a friend, and Jillian Bell’s Mercedes turns a small part into a running irritation. Ice Cube gets the biggest laugh in the film simply by being Ice Cube.
The result is a sequel that understands its own machinery and mostly refuses to coast on it. It is funnier than it needs to be, looser than the first film, and clear-eyed about what it is. The tagline is a gag and an argument: they are not 21 anymore, and neither is the franchise.
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