Review #802: '22 Jump Street' (2014)

"I want you to do exactly what you did last time!" bawls Captain Dickson (Ice Cube). No-one really expected 21 Jump Street (2012), a re-boot of a long-dead TV show, to be a hit. But it was, and a hit spells sequel in Hollywood. And so returning directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, fresh off the colossal success of The Lego Movie (2014), use 22 Jump Street as a canvas to riff-on the idea of sequels. Actually, to label it as a canvas is not doing it justice - Lord and Miller, two of the wackiest and most inventive directors of our time, stretch it out, beat it with a hammer, and make a strange yet loveable mess out of it.

Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) do exactly what their captain says and head to college, going undercover to bust yet another drug ring. The film embraces repetition wholeheartedly, all the with a winning wink to camera, so we have a Vietnamese Jesus (as opposed to Korean), a suspicious teacher, explosive action-movie car chases, homoerotic bonding, an accidental drug intake, and plenty of scantily-clad ladies. It's a formula that has worked once already - the first film was a hoot and Tatum truly excelled - so the director's laugh at their own willingness to bend to demand and their audience's willingness to lap it up, but never in an offensive way. Lord and Miller make sure you're in on the joke.

But simply acknowledging the cliché doesn't necessarily mean that it makes for entirely satisfying viewing. The jokes are clever, yes, but it still means that we have to sit through a very similar film as we did the first. This is where Lord and Miller's energy really becomes important, as the visual pizazz and the sheer momentum of the one-liners and zippy editing prove an easy distraction from what could have ultimately been a one-joke movie. In one inspired scene, Schmidt and Jenko trip on Why-Phy (the new drug), with Schmidt having a bummer and Jenko euphoric. They share a split screen, each in their own weird little world, as Schmidt tries to break the barrier into Jenko's more colourful trip. It's a crazy scene, especially for a widespread release, but delivered with such commitment that it proves a ballsy move.

It's a shame that the action scenes get in the way, offering plenty of gunshots and explosions but never really rise above the kind of thing we've been given before in the old action movies it's lampooning. Other aspects also don't quite work  - Schmidt's relationship with the gorgeous Maya (Amber Stevens) just feels unrealistic, Queen Latifah's appearance as Dickson's wife spawns a few jokes that simply don't work, and the whole thing feels over-long. But when it sticks with it's heroes, the film is consistently laugh-out-loud funny, and Tatum again delivers a performance that will leave many scratching their heads in disbelief at the idea that this is indeed the same person as the pouting, dead-eyed twat from Step Up (2006).


Directed by: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
Starring: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube, Amber Stevens, Jillian Bell
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #756: 'The LEGO Movie' (2014)

For anyone who spent a lot of their childhood banging lumps of plastic together, creating outlandish plots and dialogue for them to act out, and pretending that all that lurked beyond the edges of the bed is a sea of molten lava, then you'll get The Lego Movie. It's hyperactive, fit-inducingly-colourful, and very, very funny, but it's the message behind the movie that makes it so wonderful. It tells a silly prophetic story about a simple construction worker thought to be 'the Special' - a plot deliberately made to sound like it's the product of an imaginative child - but his world of instructions manuals, mass consumerism, moronic pop songs and diabolical sitcoms is our world: the adult world. The Lego Movie makes you want to find your inner child again, and go back to those days where you could transport yourself to another world in your bedroom by using your own brain.

Emmet (Chris Pratt) is a naive and simple everyman, routinely watching popular sitcom "Where Are My Pants?", singing along to "Everything is Awesome!", and using an instruction manual for every aspect of his life. Left behind on a construction site one night, he comes across the mysterious Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks), who seems to be searching for something. After accidentally spooking her, he investigates himself, and comes across the 'Piece of Resistance', a glowing object that gives him visions and knocks him unconscious when he touches it. When he awakens, he's being interrogated by Bad Cop (Liam Neeson), and finds the Piece has attached itself to his back. Believing him to be 'the Special' from a prophecy, Wyldstyle rescues Emmet and takes him to the Gandalf-alike Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman), who teaches Emmet the way to becoming a master builder.

What could have been a mindless 90-minute advertisement for a global product, The Lego Movie dodges the bullet by actually attacking mass-consumerism, placing the importance on creativity and individuality. The big bad buy is Lord Business (Will Ferrell), a helmet-wearing, caped corporate devil who wishes to control everyone by gluing them in place with 'the Krakle' (a mispronunciation of Krazy Glue), oppressing the freedom to travel between Lego worlds (including The Old West, Middle-Zealand and Cloud Cuckoo Land). This is also a stab at collectors, those strange types who like to keep their toys in boxes and display them, rather than getting them out and using them for what they were designed for. Toys may have become ornaments, ways to make easy money on eBay.

It could be argued that such satire has no place in a kids movie. But these are the same kids who now have their own iPhones, bombarded with in-game advertisements and growing up in a world of reality TV, with programmes consistently celebrating wealth, stupidity and branding. Wyldstyle, concerned that Emmet may have never had an original thought in his entire life, asks him what his favourite restaurant is. "Any chain restaurant!" he gleefully replies. This is the man who is supposed to save the world, the greatest master builder to have ever lived, only to be a master builder, you need to have an imagination to create something amazing out of nothing. The best that Emmet has come up at this point is a two-level couch. It maybe useless, illogical and absolutely pointless, but it's something.

But The Lego Movie isn't all metaphors, it's also beautifully animated (it occasionally replicates stop-motion, as if the movie is actually made of Lego bricks, although it is entirely CGI), exceptionally witty, and features an outstanding vocal cast, who make up an entourage of Lego characters based on other mediums. We have Batman (Will Arnett) as Wyldstyle's arrogant yet loveable boyfriend, and the likes of Han Solo, C-3PO, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Gandalf, Dumbledore, Michelangelo the Renaissance artist and Michelangelo the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. It's an absolute joy, as if looking into a child's toy box to find a bunch of random and unconnected figures from years of collecting. And that sums up the film - like looking into the past and realising that that same person, who could lose hours putting on silly voices and concocting ridiculous stories, is still in there somewhere.


Directed by: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
Voices: Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Morgan Freeman, Will Ferrell, Will Arnett, Alison Brie, Liam Neeson
Country: Australia/USA/Denmark

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #684: 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs' (2009)

Based on the 1978 novel of the same name by Judi and Ron Barrett, directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller took the foundation of the literature and created a sort of 'origin' story. The book told of a fantastical town where it rained the inhabitant's daily meals until the portions span out of control, creating gigantic food storms and oversized grub. The film imagines this phenomena is caused by science-nut Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader), who after witnessing his small town getting shut off from the world and forced to eat nothing but sardines, thinks he can win the hearts of the townsfolk by creating a machine that turns water in the food of your choice.

At the opening of Sardine Land, hosted by Mayor Shelbourne (Bruce Campbell), Flint's contraption goes haywire and shoots off into the sky. Soon enough, pickles, buns and cheese are raining from the sky, which soon become full cheeseburgers. The townsfolk lap it up, plying Flint with requests, and even the intern reporter Sam Sparks (Anna Faris) starts to enjoy her pun-filled reports. That is until the machine starts to lose control and begins spewing out giant spaghetti tornado's and giant steaks.

Similar in a way to the Belgian madcap comedy A Town Called Panic, released the same year, Cloud With a Chance of Meatballs find most of it's charm in its relentless and hyperactive approach. Jokes litter both the foreground and background of the movie, producing some inventive, old-fashioned slapstick alongside some modern, more neurotic humour. It's an insane film at times, but there's a lot of genuine wit here. In a montage of Flint's failed inventions, we see televisions that walk to you on legs so you can change the channel, spray-on shoes that never come off, and ratbirds. The inventions are then seen throughout the film, either taking an active role in the plot or, in the television's case, looting the town's electronics store for an enjoyable throwaway gag.

But beneath all the frenetic energy, there's some heartfelt moments involving Flint's father (voiced by a gruff James Caan) who can't quite communicate with the son he doesn't understand. There is also some subtle commentary on humanity's wastefulness and penchant for greed. All the uneaten food gets flung miles over a hill so it can rot away out of sight, and as the dollar signs increase in size in Mayor Shelbourne's eyes, so does his waste size. The ending takes the disappointing route of continuing the current trend of animated films having overblown, action-packed climaxes, but if you can put that aside, there is a lot to savour here.


Directed by: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
Voices: Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Andy Samberg, Bruce Campbell, Mr. T, Benjamin Bratt, Neil Patrick Harris
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #418: '21 Jump Street' (2012)

Did anyone really want a modern update of 21 Jump Street, a cancelled TV show that ran between 1987 and 1991, a show that is only really remembered for being Johnny Depp's big break? The answer is, tragically, yes, it's the same people that watch tripe such as the recent remakes of Hawaii Five-O and Charlie's Angels, lapping up its generic story lines and unchallenging episodic structure. Thankfully, we're not going to have to watch two failed movie actors accepting a career in television (in the case of Hawaii 5-O), as 21 Jump Street has been given a full-blown movie, and rather than following the same tone and style as its predecessor, Jonah Hill and Michael Bacall have written as an absurd action-comedy, taking a giant gamble and casting heart-throb Channing Tatum, an actor that has looked more comfortable in recent years in action films and romantic comedies.

Schmidt (Hill) and Jenko (Tatum) are two recent police graduates who became best friends in helping each through their own difficulties during the police examinations. In high school, just seven years earlier, Schmidt was a nerd who dressed as Eminem ("not-so-Slim Shady"), and Jenko was the long-haired popular jock. After a failed drug bust, the two are assigned to a recently re-instated program that was cancelled in the 80's (get it?), and are shipped off to 21 Jump Street to play undercover at a local high school that has seen an influx of a new hallucinogenic drug. To their surprise, they find that the politics of high school have changed, and now the nerds rule, and the jocks are the ones that don't fit in (Jenko blames recent TV shows, "fuck you, Glee!"). With Schmidt seeing his new popularity as a way to re-live his high school days the way he would have wanted, his friendship with Jenko suffers, as does their drug operation.

Given the recent comedy disappointments that have starred the likes of Jonah Hill and his posse, I wasn't expecting much more than a few titters from 21 Jump Street. To my surprise, the film is actually hilarious, thanks to a witty, smut-filled script, some fast-paced action scenes, and real chemistry between the two leads. It also plays out like a love-letter to the 1980's, where mismatched-buddy action comedies seemed to be out every other week, and is wise enough to be well aware of this, embracing the cliches of the genre (during a high speed chase, there is a nice running joke about vehicles not exploding as they would usually in movies, and Ice Cube plays the obligatory angry black captain - "I'm black, and occasionally I get angry!").

Hill, love him or hate him (I tend to be in the former category) gives the performance you would expect - nervous, foul-mouthed, and wasting no opportunity to make a clever pop culture reference - and it's interesting how he makes the audience almost despise the nerd when we are so used to them being the sympathetic character. Tatum is the film's trump card, proving a brilliant comedy actor, and does not simply play the straight man to Hill's funny man. Jenko is big, handsome and stupid (in the opening calamitous drug bust he forgets the Miranda rights -"you have the right to... suck my dick, motherfucker!), yet he has a big heart, bonding with some science nerds to both infiltrate a dealer and to learn about science.

The jokes are about as crude and as vulgar as I've heard for a while. There are as many cock jokes than there are sight gags, often blending the two together- a funny scene sees Jenko childishly doing ridiculous sex positions with a toy giraffe on Schmidt as he talks to his potential girlfriend on the phone. But if you can stomach the smut and would find the lead characters tripping their balls off on drugs funny, then there's plenty of fun to be had here, as at its core there is a lot of heart. Fans of the original show are in for a treat too, as there is an inspired revelation at the end, as well as homages and references to the series and the era in general ("I look like Fred Savage in the Wonder Years, only naked!"). A film that proves that taking an old idea and re-doing it can work, as long as your wise enough to make it seem fresh.


Directed by: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
Starring: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Brie Larson, Dave Franco, Rob Riggle, Ice Cube
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie