22 Jump Street (2014) * *

Directed by:  Phil Lord and Chris Miller

Starring:  Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Amber Stevens, Ice Cube, Wyatt Russell, Rob Riggle

I have to say I laughed watching 22 Jump Street, but when a movie throws so much at the wall, a few gags and jokes are bound to stick.     Other than a scene where Capt. Dickson (Ice Cube) stares at a character that is dating his daughter with an expression that is part snarl and part puzzlement, I am hard pressed to remember what made me laugh.      Oddly, the film's predecessor, 21 Jump Street, had the same effect on me, although I did enjoy it more.     Such films live in the moment, but are nearly forgotten by the time you get home.

21 Jump Street was more plot driven.     Its humor was drawn from the irony that the high school geek was more popular than the high school jock when they went undercover as students trying to break up a drug ring.       Each learned how the other felt when they actually were high schoolers.     In 22 Jump Street, the cops Schmidt (Hill) and Jenko (Tatum) go undercover as college students trying to bust up a drug ring, but they are too old to be college freshmen and are called on it.     Schmidt and Jenko's bromance is threatened by the emergence of a rival, a jock named Zook (Russell) who finds a kindred spirit in Jenko, especially when Jenko turns out to be an excellent wide receiver.    

A running gag in the film is Schmidt and Jenko behaving like an unconsummated homosexual couple.     They are not gay, but only they seem to know that.     An unscheduled therapist session doesn't just underline this, but marks it with a fluorescent highlighter.     The scene unravels without a substantial payoff.     Many scenes in 22 Jump Street have a wonderful setup, but fall flat when it comes time to deliver the punch line.     And there are many, many punch lines here because nearly everything is a joke.

22 Jump Street is not only a sequel, but it goofs on itself by making fun of sequels.     It also is part slapstick, part self-aware humor, part sly cultural references (you have to look hard and fast to catch the Benny Hill show reference) and when all else is exhausted, projectile vomiting.     In other words, anything goes, which is not usually a sound formula for successful comedy.    How many members of the intended audience for this movie would even know who Benny Hill was?

I really didn't divulge details of the plot because the film never tires of telling us how it is so similar to the one in 21 Jump Street.     If you saw the original, you pretty much know how this one will turn out, although the locales do change and Johnny Depp does not make a surprise cameo (which was fun in the first film).      Sometimes self-aware comedies become too cool for the room or simply become retreads of what they are spoofing, which happens here     Tatum and Hill pour a lot of energy into their roles and both are likable performers.     Hill is a two-time Oscar nominee who doesn't necessarily need to do any more Jump Street films.     Tatum's earnest niceness comes through in his roles and does so here too.    He has also stretched his talents beyond Jump Street.     

22 Jump Street is ambitious if not entirely successful.      There is a montage of potential Jump Street sequels over the closing credits, but for my money every comic possibility has already been explored in the first two films.     A third installment will be repetitive and extraneous, which I'm sure 22 Jump Street has already warned you about.