Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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JULY 23-29, 2014 UCW 21 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM 22 Jump Street (112 minutes) is funnier than my extremely low expectations led me to anticipate, maybe even better than the first movie. Two years after completing their 21 Jump Street drug bust Morton Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Greg Jenko are working an undercover sting while attending an online university. They finally decode a lecture that reveals the location of a major operation, and head to the Metro City docks, where they are racist for a long time. A really, unacceptably long time. It turns out that racism is not a good undercover police tactic, and their perp Ghost (Peter Stormare) gets away. Chief Hardy (Nick Offerman) puts the two back in the Jump Street program while flogging the importance of repeating plot points to guarantee sequels make a profit. It's funny, but only because Nick Offerman is doing it. They end up across the street from 21 Jump Street, in a Vietnamese church, working for Captain Dickson (Ice Cube). They are assigned undercover work at the local and unrealistically posh university. Their mission is to locate the supplier of a drug called WHYPHY that killed a student on campus. Jenko makes friends with football player Zook (Wyatt Russell, AKA Kurt Russell, Jr.). Schmidt has a harder time finding a group to fit in with, but finally hooks up with an art student named Maya (Amber Stevens). I would call shenanigans on that, but Maya is clearly working out some Daddy issues by becoming an art major, so selecting inappropriate boyfriends sort of makes sense. Except not really and I hope she got paid a bonus for allowing Jonah Hill within her personal bubble. Maya has a roommate named Mercedes (Jillian Bell). Considering Mercedes's age the rapid fire riffs calling out Schmidt for being a non-traditional student fall slightly flat. She's funny, but she would be funnier if she stopped parroting other deadpan style comics and found her own voice. Eventually, Schmidt and Jenko visit Mr. Walter (Rob Riggle) and Eric (Dave Franco), for no real reason other than the fact that they were in the first movie and people seemed to like the characters. It's actually a pretty stupid scene that doesn't add a whole lot to the rest of the movie beyond giving them their next point, a stupid tattoo that is stupidly placed. Their next tactic involves using the heretofore unnoticed tattoo to troll the local parlors, where they find out that almost every student in campus gets stupid tattoos. Meanwhile, Jenko gets further involved with Zook and his frat brothers while Schmidt feels their formerly dynamic duo slipping away. A few chase scenes later, Schmidt is taking the blame for the utter failure of their undercover operation to catch any bad guys while Jenko decides to parlay his fake student status into a real football scholarship. Again, I'd call shenanigans but for my belief that successfully throwing a pigskin would cause a university to overlook quite a few irregularities in your record. Overall, it's worth a laugh if you can stomach lining the pockets of a star who is seconds away from a full-on Mel Gibson Moment. Feel free to count the callbacks and inside references — the film is chock full of Easter egg gems that not even the Internet has finished codifying. I lost track after the first 20, but I'm guessing I missed one in three. Filmed on a Cate Blanchett Budget 22 Jump Street (Rated R) by HEATHER GRIFFITHS HEATHER GRIFFITHS, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@upand- comingweekly.com. 910.484.6200. Hail & Farewells • Call for Reservations • We Cater 217 Hay St. Historic Downtown 678-8885 5780 Ramsey St. Next to Methodist University 822-3590 Voted Fayetteville's Best Overall Restaurant Voted Fayetteville's Best Overall Restaurant Authentic Italian Cuisine Brick Fired NY Pizza 3010 Traemoor Village Dr. Hope Mills 491-4667 Wed. night 1/2 price bottle of wine • Tues. night $5 martinis 910.484.2284 www.CapeFearEye.com Dr. Shelby Stephenson has relocated to Cape Fear Eye Associates, PA Special Interests: Glaucoma Treatment Diabetic Eye Disease Treatment of Dry Eye Disease & Injury Refractive Error (Treatment for Farsightedness, Nearsightedness & Astigmatism) Comprehensive Eye Care (Adults & Children) General Ophthalmology Dr. J. Wayne Riggins, Dr. Sheel Patel, Dr. Cynthia Toth Dr. Lejla Vajzovic, Dr. Shelby Stephenson Dr. Edward Kenshock, Jr., Dr. John Krempecki, Dr. Duy Lam 1629 Owen Drive Fayetteville, NC 28304 30+ Years Experience We Offer To schedule an appointment call: