22 Jump street

Sequels have a habit of not reaching the heights of it's predecessor, we have seen it a thousand times. The lost world, Taken 2, The walking dead season 2, Psycho II and of course Terminator 2.

No, just kidding, Terminator 2 is awesome. Speaking of awesome sequels (horrible transition), because there are actually a few out there, 22 Jump street.

I hopped on the 21 Jump street train pretty late. When the movie first came out I thought it would be one of those lame cash cow films trying to coast on an earlier success, but then it showed up on Netflix late last year. I had nothing better to do so I figured I should give it a shot. I was overwhelmed. It was a very funny, close to hilarious, and managed to break free of its predecessor and become its own thing.

Fast forward to 2014. The sequel emerges and from the get go it looks exactly like 21 Jump. The plot is the same and the jokes appear to be the same. It all feels like a cheap way to cash in on the success of the first movie. With some reluctance I decide to go se the movie. I sit down and the ominous feeling of dissapointment rears its ugly head. 15 minutes later I am laughing my ass off.

22 Jumo street manages to do something very few sequels do, it re-invents the wheel, improves it and at the same time creates something new and fairly original. There is no denying that the core plot of 22 is exactly the same as 21, but the directors and screenwriters doesn't try to hide it, instead they use it for some very effective meta comedy. By acknowledging the similarities between the two movies they are able to joke about the fact that the 22 Jump is basicly a more expensive version of 21 and that the actual assignment in the movie is just a more expensive assignment than the last.

This kind of comedy permeat the entire movie and is its biggest strength as well as its only weakness. Towards the end the meta becomes a little to much and I lost touch with the plot and characters.

22 Jump street still manages to be one of the funniest movies in recent years though, it builds perfectly on all the characters from the 21 Jump and expands them into more 3 dimensional characters, something that is becoming more apparent in modern comedies but really works the best here.

22 Jump street is a perfect example of a sequel outdoing the predecessor, it is also a perfect example on how to make a almost perfect comedy. Can't wait for 23 Jump street, 24, 25 and all the way up to 2121.