Review: ‘Bro-mance’ is not really up my Street

22 Jump Street (15) review

I’ll level with you from the outset – I haven’t seen 21 Jump Street, so I watched this sequel with fresh eyes.

From what I’ve read elsewhere, 22 Jump Street is pretty much a carbon copy of the original. One of my big bugbears with some reviews is that sequels often aren’t judged on their own merit… so on this occasion it’s actually worked in my favour.

Those of you that have seen the popular first film will know that police partners Jenko (Channing Tatum) and Schmidt (Jonah Hill) ‘specialise’ in going under cover to crack drug-related crime.

The original saw them go back to High School, with this latest version sending them to College in a bid to stop the spread of ‘WHYPHY’ – a drug that caused the death of a student.

From the off it’s clear that Tatum (White House Down) and Hill (The Wolf of Wall Street) have solid chemistry and they do work pretty well together as polar-opposite partners.

Sent to a secret police base on 22 Jump Street after a bungled attempt to bring down narcotics Kingpin Ghost (Peter Stormare), Jenko and Schmidt’s mission is essentially a punishment.

That leaves them under the command of the humerous Captain Dickson (Ice Cube) once again – and it’s scenes involving those three that got the most laughs from me.

Jenko immediately bonds with bone-headed American football player Zook (Wyatt Russell), while Schmidt bizarrely falls in with the arty crowd after falling for an eye-catching student.

However, cracks begin to appear in their ‘bro-mance’ and the hunt for the drug dealer takes a back seat to their personal relationship.

From then on the plot feels like a strange cross between an Austin Powers film and Bad Boys, with mixed results.

For Schmidt especially, the laughs felt too forced at times. His jealously towards Jenko’s popularity on the football scene leads to the duo undertaking relationship counselling – and the constant suggestions that the two are romantically involved get very tired by the end.

There are, though, plenty of laugh out loud moments – one bizarrely including an octopus – and a couple of big-budget action scenes do deliver impressive results.

If you fancy a dumb action comedy that won’t tax the brain, 22 Jump Street is certainly worth a watch.

But I’ll not be rushing to check out the original any time soon.

Rating: 2.5/5
Watched at West End Cinema, Boston

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Showing from June 13-19 at West End Cinema, Boston

Sunday, June 15 (6pm) (Charity Screening in aid of St Barnabas Hospice)

GREASE (PG)
Tickets £3.50

Tuesday, June 17
BENVENUTO CELLINI
(7pm)

Wednesday, June 18
HENRY IV PART 2
(7pm)

**HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2 3D (PG)
Sunday (1.30pm & 4pm)

MALEFICENT 3D (PG)
2pm (Fri/Sat), 4.15pm (not Sun), 6.30pm (daily)

EDGE OF TOMORROW 3D (12A)
8.45pm (daily)

**22 JUMP STREET (15)
10.30am (Sat/Sun), 1pm (Sat/Sun/Wed), 3.30pm (daily), 6pm (daily), 8.30pm (daily)

X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST 3D (12A)
2.20pm (Fri/Sat/Sun/Wed), 8.15pm (daily)

X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST 2D (12A)
11.30am (Sun), 5.20pm (not Sun)

MALEFICENT 2D (PG)
10.15am (Sat/Sun), 12.30pm (Sat/Sun), 2pm (Sun), 4.15pm (Sun), 8.40pm (Sat-Wed)

GODZILLA 2D (12A)
2.45pm (Fri/Sat/Sun/Wed)

EDGE OF TOMORROW 2D (12A)
3.45pm (Mon), 4.20pm (Tue-Thu), 6pm (Fri-Mon)

**THE FAULT IN OUR STARS (12A)
7.30pm (Thu)

POSTMAN PAT (U)
10am (Sat/Sun), noon (Sat/Sun)

**OCULUS (15)
2pm (Fri/Sat/Wed), 4.15pm (not Sun), 6.30pm (daily), 8.45pm (daily)

KIDS’ CLUB

TINKERBELL 3D (U)
Sat-Sun 10.30am

SUPPORTIVE SCREENING

TINKERBELL 3D (PG)
Sunday 10am

SILVER SCREEN

EDGE OF TOMORROW 2D (12A)
Wednesday 11.30am

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