22 Jump Street (2014, Dirs. Phil Lord, Chris Miller, USA) (Cert: 15/R) ***

Starring: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube

After foiling a drugs ring running out of a local high school, young cops Schmidt (Hill) and Jenko (Tatum) are given another, extremely similar, case involving busting up a drugs ring, this time running out of a local college, where the two officers must pose as students.

A film adaptation of a late 80's cop show, 21 Jump Street was one of the surprise hits of 2012 and so naturally, the time has come for a sequel. Indeed the notion and concept of the sequel holds up 22 Jump Street and makes for its best and funniest moments (including a pretty impressive closing credits sequence). But as for the rest of the film...what you get is often more of the same and when changes do occur, some work for the better, some work for the worse.

The worst thing about the film is how it treats its characters, especially with Channing Tatum's Jenko. In the first film, Jenko felt more rounded and more realistic. In this film, his athleticism is given more emphasis and so is his stupidity, taking him too far into caricature. Meanwhile, our main villain is completely bland and lacks any real character beyond being a stock generic action movie baddie.

For directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the Jump Street movies do represent something of a departure. Raunchy live-action teen comedies do sit incongruously alongside their more family friendly animated fare such as Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs (2009) The Lego Movie (2014), at least at first glance. Their animated work is better by and large, but 22 Jump Street does have that sense of unbridled comedic energy, chasing joke after joke and on occasion 22 Jump Street also goes for some very strange experimental jokes, clearly borne of an animation mindset. Whilst some do have a habit of getting in the way of the plot's momentum, the ambition is at least to be lauded.

As hackneyed as it could've been, the film's best jokes are when it pokes fun at the conventions of story-telling. Leaning on the fourth wall to acknowledge the film being a sequel, for example. In fact, the film's best section is in fact an imaginative lampooning of the whole sequel concept over the end credits. The thing is, in animation I lookmat Lord and Miller's work and I see filmmakers whonhave real humour and intelligence beneath the visual level. It's still present to an extent with 22 Jump Street but, whilst it's not a bad movie, it feels less rounded than better fare they've provided in animation.