Monday, June 16, 2014

Review: 22 Jump Street

IMDb

Title:
22 Jump Street

Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox
Director: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
Writer(s): Michael Bacall (screenplay), Oren Uziel (screenplay),Rodney Rothman (screenplay), Michael Bacall (story), Jonah Hill (story) 
Starring: Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Ice Cube
MPAA Rating: Rated R for language throughout, sexual content, drug material, brief nudity and some
Running Time: 112 min
Synopsis: After making their way through high school (twice), big changes are in store for officers Schmidt and Jenko when they go deep undercover at a local college.


What Others Are Saying?

Rotten Tomatoes: T-Meter: 83% "Fresh", Top Critics: 90% "Fresh", Audience: 89% "Like It"

Metacritic: Critics: 71 out of 100, Users: 7.4 out of 10
MRQE Metric: 68 out of 100
My Review

Source Material: Based on characters and concepts from 21 Jump Street television show.  

Entertaining Value:

  • Action Elements: This is an action comedy, but most of the action is a long gag / slapstick.
  • Comedy Elements: One of the better comedic timed films, I have seen in a long time
  • Dramatic Elements:  The "drama" in this film has a comedic turn.
  • Sci-Fi / Fantasy Elements: None.
Cinematic Value:
  • Acting and Dialogue: 8: I'm giving this film an eight not because the actors are great thespians but they gave great comedic performances. Jonah Hill is really the only one that has some thespian credibility with his Oscar nominations and wins, but personally he's a bit of a hit or miss especially in comedic roles. Channing Tatum on the other hand, has only really shown promise in comedies. In other films he was okay at best, if not terrible. In this film, Channing Tatum kills it, some may even say he "steals the show."  Ice Cube did a good job being Ice Cube. There were a lot of great one liners, that are very quotable. The "bros" will be quoting this movie for a while. Its up there with The Hangover on quotable level among the "bros." I also like the guest / cameo appearance in the film.
  • Art Direction: 7: I got the classic movie version of college. From a tone perspective, it was fun to see a modern Animal House type of thing going on visually.
  • Cinematography: 7: The action in the film was well shot.
  • Direction: 8: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are on fire right now. They are know for the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs films, The Lego Movie, and The Jump Street films. I like how they work in little gags that are more or less, nods and winks at the audience, mostly in the form of pop-culture reference.
  • Editing: 7: The film's pacing was good. There may have been a few minor slow parts, but I might be counting the parts I wasn't laughing as "slow."
  • Screenplay: 6: There were quite a few moments of breaking the fourth wall, meaning they know they are in a movie. They break the fourth wall as a gag by saying something along the lines of, "It the same movie" The "same thing" running gag runs its course pretty quickly, or at least for me anyways. I do like the other breaking the fourth wall gags, especially the end credit scenes. I also have to say it has a "cookie cutter" type of story, but the laughs make up for the bad story.  
  • Sound and Music: 8: The music was fitting for a "bromance" buddy cop comedy film.   
  • VFX: 7:  Not much to say, Im guessing there was more VFX on the screen then noticed. I mean there's a good amount of explosions, not quite as much as a Micheal Bay film, but a good amount.   
Overall: 7.5: I recommended this film for a great summer comedy. I suggest grabbing one of your good friends and having a good laugh.