When we last saw Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum), they had successfully busted Mr. Walters (Rob Riggle) who was distributing drugs at his school with the help of student dealer Eric (Dave Franco). Apparently, Schmidt and Jenko are terrible cops at everything except going undercover at schools, as we see right from the start. Exasperated with their work, or lack thereof, Deputy Chief Hardy (Nick Offerman) sends the guys out to the 22 Jump Street program, led by Captain Dickson (Ice Cube), who is less than thrilled to have them on his team again.
This time around, the guys go undercover in college, to find out who is distributing drugs at the school. “Infiltrate the dealers, find the supplier.” Sound familiar? Well, it is. At college they attend classes, trying to gather information about a recently deceased student who OD’d on the new designer drug of choice, Whyphy (pronounced like Wi-Fi). Meanwhile, Jenko joins the football team, making friends with frat boy jocks Rooster (Jimmy Tatro, who eerily resembles Cory Monteith) and Zook (Wyatt Russell). Schmidt begins dating art student Maya (Amber Stevens) while begrudgingly putting up with her roommate Mercedes (Jillian Bell).
When Jenko gets a little TOO into his role as undercover college student on the football team, the duo question their partnership. Schmidt is feeling left out, because the fraternity that Jenko joined doesn’t want him. After the boys try therapy, he tries to take on the case by himself. We all know what that means – the boys just work better as a team, so they hit Spring Break together in Mexico for one final chance at the Whyphy drug bust!
I thought 22 Jump Street was even funnier than 21 Jump Street. There were several times I missed dialogue, because the audience was laughing so hard. There were a few surprises which I will not reveal, because it would spoil some hilarious scenes. Once again, Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill display that special kind of “buddy comedy” chemistry. Ice Cube was fantastic in this one. And there was no question that everyone involved knew this was a sequel. There were many nods and winks to that fact, and based on a TV show at that, and what other possible sequels they could come up with using the same formula. There is a short scene after the credits, so stick around if you want to see it.
