BLU-RAY REVIEW: 22 JUMP STREET
11/16/2014

OVERVIEW: Jonah Hill (Moneyball) and Channing Tatum (Foxcatcher) are back in action in Columbia Pictures’ / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures’ outrageously explosive 22 JUMP STREET, debuting on Digital HD on Oct. 28, and on Blu-ray™ and DVD Nov. 18 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. 

The $314 million worldwide box office hit also stars Ice Cube (Ride Along), reprising his role as Captain Dickson, along with Peter Stormare (The Last Stand), Wyatt Russell (Cowboys & Aliens), Amber Stevens (“Greek”), Jillian Bell (“Workaholics”), the comedic Lucas Brothers duo, Nick Offerman (“Parks and Recreation”) and Jimmy Tatro (YouTube’s “Life According to Jimmy”).

Bonus features on both the 22 JUMP STREET Blu-ray and DVD include five deleted scenes, commentary with Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, as well as Hill and Tatum, and a “Line-O Rama” alternate scene that gives audiences a look at different takes during one of the film’s funniest scenes. Also included on Blu-ray and DVD is “The Perfect Couple of Directors” featurette, which takes a look at the directors’ creative vision for 22 JUMP STREET and their collaboration with Tatum and Hill. Blu-ray exclusive bonus features include 17 additional deleted and extended scenes (22 in total), six all-new featurettes, four more “Line-O-Ramas,” a montage of jokes cut from the film, and two viral videos, “Zook & McQuaid’s Football Tape” and “Jenko Split”.

SYNOPSIS: After making their way through high school (twice), big changes are in store for officers Schmidt (Hill) and Jenko (Tatum) when they go deep undercover at a local college. But when Jenko meets a kindred spirit on the football team, and Schmidt infiltrates the bohemian art major scene, they begin to question their partnership. Now they don’t have to just crack the case – they have to figure out if they can have a mature relationship. If these two overgrown adolescents can grow from freshman to real men, college might be the best thing that ever happened to them.

REVIEW: Arguably, directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller (21 Jump Street, 2012 and The Lego Movie, 2014) are proving to be two of the more Ingenious and imaginative filmmakers working in Hollywood at the moment. Basically, they make it possible for this sequel to live up to its predecessor, in spectacular style. They are back with Jonah Hill’s Schmidt character and Channing Tatum’s Jenko character, whom previously went undercover through high school, posing as students much younger than themselves and resulting in uncovering a major drug ring. This time around, they are pulled back in by Ice Cube’s intensely angry Captain Dickson character to pull off pretty much the same exact investigation, by the same exact means, and, by proxy, act out the same exact plot as the original.

Now here's the problem with that…On one hand a sequel is a tricky balancing act with fans and the bigwigs wanting something fresh and different. On the other hand, if they stray too far from the established blueprint (from which warranted funding for part two) then both parties will turn against it with a sense of scorn. As a result, Filmmakers tend to play it safe, delivering (more often than not) a higher-budgeted, but lightly disguised revision of the first film (Hangover sequel comes to mind). Rarely is either party completely happy about it, hence, the tendency for most to have a skeptical approach to viewing a sequel to a hit show.

Fear not though, this latest release is the rare sequel that lives up to its predecessor and in an age where the conveyor belts of Seth McFarlane and Adam Sandler continually spew out the lowest-common-denominator types of movies posing as comedies, the team (the directors and leads) behind 22 Jump Street (one of the best comedy sequels in recent memory), should be absolutely proud of themselves for championing genuine wit, and comic creativity that not only equals, but supersedes it’s forerunner. 

In contrast, I would have to point out something that took away from the ‘coolness’ of this flick; it has to be the manner in which they played up the whole “bromance” thing, between the lead characters. I felt that this was very much over-done and teetered on the brink of ruining the movie. Luckily, somehow the comedy element throughout the 112 minute runtime was able to overpower the simpleminded-ness of the constant barrage of “bromance” filled scenes.

Nevertheless though, this flick does represent some sorta breakthrough in comic writing, editing, and acting, and as a result, exemplifies something very rare these days; creative thinking in the comedy-sequel arena. This is by far the best comedy of the year to date and I believe that it is well-worth the theater visit with four out of five stars being well-deserved here.

Review By Movi-Man Stan 

BLU-RAY: The film is presented in widescreen in a 2.40:1 aspect ration preserving its theatrical format. The picture is just flawless. Not only the picture looks great in this release, also the sound it is good, a 5.1 Dolby Digital in English that provides a good complement to the picture. It also includes  English, French  and Spanish subtitles.

VIDEO:
Widescreen (2.40:1) 16x9

AUDIO:
DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1/DVS DD 2.0 English, Latin Spanish, Canadian French, Brazilian Portuguese

Subtitles - English SDH, Latin Spanish, Parisian French

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Blu-ray™ unleashes the power of your HDTV and is the best way to watch movies at home, featuring 6X the picture resolution of DVD, exclusive extras and theater-quality surround sound.

DVD offers the flexibility and convenience of playing movies in more places, both at home and away.

DIGITAL HD with UltraViolet™ lets fans watch movies anywhere on their favorite devices. Users can instantly stream or download.

Commentary with Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum

Five Deleted & Extended Scenes

“The Perfect Couple of Directors” Featurette

17 Additional Deleted & Extended Scenes (22 total)

Six Additional Featurettes:

“Everything is Better in College” a closer look at Jenko and Schmidt’s undercover transformation into college students

“Janning and Chonah” dives into the relationship of the film’s two stars

“New Recruits: Casting 22 Jump Street” gives a look at the new cast members in the film

“The Perfect Line: Ad-libbing on Set” showcases the great comic actors and their improvisation in some of the film’s most memorable scenes

“Don’t Cry Yet: The Mr. Walters Prison Scene” -- Unfiltered and hilarious improvisation that occurred while filming the Mr. Walters prison scene

“The Dramatic Interpretation of 22 Jump Street” – A dramatic version of the film (with all jokes removed)

“Joke-a-Palooza” -- a montage of jokes cut from the film

Line-O-Ramas:

“Schmidt and Tattoo Art”
“Jenko and the Professor”
“Jenko Improv Suggestions”
“Mercedes on Schmidt’s Age”
“Mercedes and The Ghost”

Extra Videos:

“Zook & McQuaid’s Football Tape”
“Jenko Split”