"22 Jump Street": The Perfect Anti-Sequel

Now Available on DVD and Blu-Ray

Try to think of a sequel to a great comedy movie that was just as good as the first.  You may be able to think of a couple examples, but they are certainly few and far between when compared to the plethora of failed attempts to make a franchise from what worked well as a stand-alone product.  So it’s certainly reasonable to worry that 22 Jump Street would befall the same fate, but I come bearing good news: it’s hilarious, if not funnier than the first film.  Where the first film was built on a meta-joke about how reviving a short-lived 1980s TV show as a modern film was a stupid idea (and paradoxically was a huge success), the second film is itself a giant meta-joke about the formulaic nature of sequels, calling attention to how much its basic plot is just like the first film, while still remaining fresh with new character arcs and even more hilarious writing.

If you’ve seen 21 Jump Street (which you definitely should if you want to fully appreciate most of this film’s self-referential humor), then you already know the basic premise.  Young-looking cops Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) infiltrate a learning institution (this time a college campus) in order to track down a new drug’s dealer and supplier.  What’s brilliant about the set-up this time around though is that the film is constantly breaking the fourth wall to refer to how much this is exactly like the events of the first film, while excessively flaunting the film’s bigger budget by needlessly having the most expensive set-pieces imaginable and then drawing attention to them.  Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are the absolute masters of these sorts of industry-stabbing shenanigans, proving time and again that they know how to turn a stupid premise into a hilarious study of film-making’s lazier and corporate-driven elements.

But even without the meta-humor, the film is still incredibly solid in its own right, playing role reversal with its main characters so as not to rehash every element of the original film.  In 21 Jump Street, Schmidt is a loser-turned-cool-kid while Jenko ends up living in the land of the nerds, but in 22 Jump Street, Jenko ends up fitting in like never before as he joins frat life, and Schmidt is pushed to the lonely sidelines as he feels like he’s losing his best friend.  This is a clever variation on old themes that still comes across as fresh and new due to very natural character progression and sly winks to the fact that we would normally expect them to go through the same arcs as in the first film.  And, of course, Hill and Tatum are one of the great comedy duos of this decade, with a chemistry that is undeniably rich.

I would be remiss to point out that there’s one scene in the film that revisits the villains of the first movie, but it relies heavily on a very offensive trans joke and doesn’t really add much to the overall narrative.  However, it’s a small, ugly blemish on what is otherwise a fantastically funny film.  It plays with your expectations in all the right ways and ultimately turns what should have been a horrible failure into a great success.

23 Jump Street has been announced, but Lord and Miller won’t be directing.  They’re only acting as producers.  Will lightning only strike twice, or can a third time be just as charming?  Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

"Land Ho!": A Film About Nothing

Now Available On DVD and Blu-Ray

Land Ho! is generally what you’d expect from a low-budget film making its rounds on the indie circuit.  It’s about two older guys, taking a vacation in Iceland, seeing the sights and exchanging humorous, naturalistic banter along the way.  Though the characters are likeable and the setting is gorgeous, the filmmakers seem to have forgotten a critical piece of crafting a narrative; there’s no damn story to this thing!

Our two main characters are Mitch and Colin.  Mitch is basically what you would get if you aged Walter from The Big Lebowski to his sixties and turned his lechery up one-hundredfold.  Colin is the more grounded, sensible, less adventurous type.  Mitch pulls Colin along on an adventure to Iceland, because why the hell not, and as the two talk and have quaint montage moments, we get pieces of their pre-retirement backstories that humanize them and make them relatable to the film’s primary demographic of retirement-age folks.  This is all well and good, as the actors playing our two leads have a rich chemistry between them, so the friendship feels genuine if not simply an enactment of the performers’ genuine fondness for one another.

However, the film lacks any sense of conflict to drive it forward.  The only time the film ever comes close is when the two friends get into an argument two-thirds of the way through, and that gets resolved so quickly that it hardly seems to matter, even with respect to the film’s thankfully short runtime.  The main focus on the film is to take advantage of the gorgeous scenery that Iceland has to offer, but this has the effect of making the film feel like a glorified travel brochure rather than a fictional feature film.

And that’s all there really is to say about it.  There isn’t any substance here to analyze, and the film seems content to just be a character-driven travelogue without any conflict or narrative.  I’m sure that some folks in the target demographic will be able to vicariously enjoy the Icelandic countryside through the main characters that are so archetypal that one could easily identify oneself in them, but this is certainly not a film that’s going to entertain a wider audience.  It’s not bad for what it is, but what it is lacks so much ambition as to be mostly pointless.

Can’t even think of a good comment starter for this one.  Old people, am I right?  Comments below and whatnot.

"A Most Wanted Man": Hoffman's Swan Song

Now Available On DVD and Blu-Ray

No one could have predicted that A Most Wanted Man would feature Philip Seymour Hoffman’s final role, but I can’t think of a better way that he could have taken his final bow.  Hoffman’s primary talent as an actor was to take harsh, unsympathetic characters and portray them with such humanizing nuance that we cannot help but be sympathetic.  With the exception of his portrayal of Truman Capote, I don’t think Hoffman has ever done a finer job of making the unlovable just a little bit understandable.

Hoffman plays a German intelligence agent in Hamburg named Gunther Bachmann, attempting to hunt down a Chechnyan refugee, Issa Karpov, whom he believes may be involved in plans for future terrorist activities because he is the son of a known launderer of terrorist funds.  Hoffman’s espionage team also begins tracking a local Muslim philanthropist whom they believe funnels money to fund terrorist organizations.  Gunther seeks to manipulate the two targets into exchanging funds, coercing the help of a nervous banker and Issa’s own attorney in order to achieve these ends, all while trying to navigate debriefings with American agents who seem a little too interested in the case.

The plot itself is hard to describe much further, due to its relative complexity and reliance on surprises.  However, what I will say is that initial perceptions of several key characters are not always as they appear to be, and the lines become a bit blurred when determining who is truly a villain and who is only doing villainous things in order to further a righteous agenda.  Hoffman walks this line perfectly as Gunther, a cynically unapologetic spy who seems to live entirely on cigarettes and coffee and has no life outside of his obsessive job.  He and his team are not legally a part of German law enforcement, so he has license to illegally use surveillance and is not above blackmailing or kidnapping people in order to get what he wants.  However, he only does those things because he wants to prevent another terrorist event from happening.  He takes no joy in what he does, and the film does nothing to make his tactics any more redeemable.  He’s only doing his job in the best way he knows how and hoping that the world ends up a safer place because of it.

The film is really only hindered by a few weaker performances, notably Rachel McAdams as Issa’s attorney and Willem Dafoe as the banker.  Dafoe doesn’t do a horrible job, but he mostly feels like he’s been miscast, forcibly restrained from being a more animated character that wouldn’t have fit in this film.  Again, not a bad performance, but one that I think should have been filled by a different breed of character actor.  However, the real weak link her is McAdams, who, while not terrible, feels a bit flat compared to her fellow performers.  She doesn’t portray much emotion beyond blind concern for Issa’s well-being and guilt for being manipulated against him, and her inability to convey a convincing German accent leaves a lot to be desired.  While not outright bad, her lack of ability is especially noticeable when in scenes where Hoffman dominates not just out of his own gravitas, but out of necessity to carry the scene forward.

Those minor quibbles aside, A Most Wanted Man is a damn good espionage thriller that will leave you shocked at some points, intrigued at others, and disgusted in gut-wrenching ways by the end.  This one is definitely worth your time.

Have a favorite Philip Seymour Hoffman film?  Let me know in the comments below.