My first post on my movie blog had to be something special.
I wanted to pick a movie that really moved me, that is profound and mind
blowing and earth shattering. Ah, well, the problem with that is the fact that I
have to sift through numerous such brilliant films and go through a soul crushing
dilemma of choosing one. So I told myself that I should be fair and picked last
one I watched. Well, yeah, my laziness willingly supported the approach that it
was as fair as I could get.
Ok, here goes.
22 Jump Street is everything the first movie was - an
entertaining cocktail of slapstick humour, fantastic visualisations of drug
induced trippiness, puns both good & bad and a smile inducing bromance. My
only and prime motivation to watch this one was to see Schmidt and Jenko
together again and on that front the movie delivers.
The plot line is exactly the same - something the characters
themselves say quite a few times to show that the movie is self aware. This was
refreshing and nice until the point I actually realised that that it was more
of an excuse for not having written a better plot/story rather than a factor
enriching the movie with a little meta angle. The chemistry between Tatum and Hill is the
prologue, story, epilogue and glossary of this movie. They are hilarious and
many of the jokes actually seem to be improvs done on the fly.
There are quite a few laugh out loud scenes and the college
stereotypes, digs at serious cop movies are entertaining. But there are parts
that are completely clichéd -such as the
storyline about the two best friends moving away due to differences but
eventually finding the spark again.
The end credits was a nice touch. It was hilarious even
though it just played the meta aspect of making sequels that are made simply because
there is easy money to be made. Well
played though.
There is a scene where Schmidt tries to take a bullet for
Jenko in vain and Jenko gets shot anyway. "I
tried to take a bullet for you man" "Yeah, you didn't" "But
I tried, it's the thought that matters" "No it's not the thought that
counts its fucking taking the bullet". May be the directors really thought
they are building upon the hugely popular first movie but there is little
character development for the two leads and it feels like an formulaic repeat -
oh but what a min - it IS a formulaic repeat. This is the only thought that
should really matter to you and since it's not the thought that counts, you can bite the bullet and watch it.
Genre- Comedy
Director - Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
Cast - Jonah Hill,
Channing Tatum, Ice Cube
What worked - Everything that was likeable in the first
movie
What sucked - There is nothing noteworthy that wasn't
already in the first movie
Who should watch - Those who liked the first; Those who like
simple straightforward comedy movies with slapstick, goofy laughs; those who
like Tatum and Hill.
Who shouldn't watch - Those who liked Hangover but bitched
about Hangover 2. You kind of miss the point.
Bottomline - a moderately funny film for a late night view after
a long day, when you want the comfort of the known and some juvenile jokes to
laugh at.
Score - 2/5.
PS - I still enjoyed the movie but given that the rating
scale has to be used across movies I have to be prudent with it.
