Page 20 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • June 25, 2014 Hill and Tatum deliver laughs in ‘22 Jump Street’ When an unpleasant epithet is used at one point to refer to gay men, Jenko shifts gears from dim-bulb goofball to rights activist as he gives a speech about the inappropri- ateness of such terms in the modern world. The audience laughs because it is so out of character for Jenko, but the message is genuinely felt. While Jenko is hanging out with Zook, Schmidt is cozy- ing up to lovely Maya (Amber Stevens), an undergrad who knew the deceased student. Finding the drug dealer is secondary to the hijinks until the final third of the film, which is a highlight, as the actual drug dealer is revealed and lots of mayhem ensues. The team of Hill and Tatum is movie magic. They work together effortlessly and look as if they are having a grand old time. Hill is more into improvisation than Tatum, who knows to just go with the flow. His dumbfounded look is as much a comic trademark as Chaplin’s derby and cane or John Wayne’s Stetson. Hill manages to convey intelli- gence and deliver in the gag department, so he seems to be the right cop to ferret out a drug dealer, though his meth- ods may not be by the book. The scenes in which Hill and Tatum are apart are the weakest. Together, they are a ter- rific comedy team. Rated R for strong language, “22 Jump Street” is the perfect summer flick. The film delivers plenty of laughs, which might keep viewers from realizing they are watching pretty much the same movie as this one’s predecessor. Undercover cops Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) are on the trail of a drug dealer in ‘22 Jump Street.’ by Dennis Seuling Hollywood long ago recognized that there was gold to be mined from sequels to popular movies. In fact, many sequels have surpassed the originals in box office dollars. The difficulty with sequels has always been giving view- ers what they enjoyed in the first movie while skewing the story just enough to make it seem like something new. In “22 Jump Street,” directors Phil Lord and Christo- pher Miller (“21 Jump Street,” “The Lego Movie”) play with that conundrum with lots of inside jokes and dialogue that work not only to establish and move the plot ahead, but also to comment on the requisites of making a sequel. Cops Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) are given a new assignment by Captain Dickson (Ice Cube): Go undercover at a local college where a new designer drug has been making the rounds and is responsible for the death of a student. Their object is to find the distributor and make an arrest. Sound familiar? It is essentially the same plot as “21 Jump Street,” but the setting is a college campus instead of a high school. The twist is that their brotherly relationship is threatened when Jenko develops a man- crush on quarterback Zook (Wyatt Russell). When Jenko suggests that he and Schmidt go their separate ways in the investigation, Schmidt is hurt and a very funny breakup scene satirizes the typical male/female split so common in traditional romantic pictures. That is one of the clever- est bits in a script filled with goofiness, plays on words, improvisation, action sequences, and even a surreal dream sequence. The directors toy with gender relationships without sac- rificing laughs. As viewers watch the relationship between Jenko and Zook develop, for example, they might just be watching the “meet cute” scene in a traditional romantic flick. However, the movie never slips into anything other than a buddy-type relationship between Jenko and Zook.