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22 Jump Street (2014)
22 Jump Street (2014)
2014 | Action, Comedy, Crime
Story: 22 Jump Street starts by filling us in on what happened in the last film like a previous episode. We watch Schmidt (Hill) and Jenko (Tatum) as they try take down a criminal The Ghost (Stormare) but much like the first one, things go slightly wrong. Jenko and Schmidt have to go to college undercover to uncover the latest drug craze. The two go through the opposite direction to the previous film and we get to see how they react to their reverse situations.

team

22 Jump Street uses the first ten minutes poking fun at the idea of a sequel, including talking about doubling the budget, how they got lucky first time after everyone thought the idea would fail. It also forced to tell the same story as well as actually having an upgraded office called 22 Jump Street with 23 Jump Street opening next door. We continue to get plenty of ‘it is a sequel’ jokes through the film so much so that it feels like a glorified extended version of a television show. it is full of jokes, action and personally I think the story is so easy to watch and laugh along with it could be the best I have seen in years. (9/10)

 

Actor Review

 

Jonah Hill: Schmidt big guy to the comedy double act who ends up going through the same problems of not fitting in as Jenko did through the first film. Schmidt gets romantically involved with a Maya a girl on campus who turns out to be Captain Dickson’s daughter. Jonah gives a great performance showing that he really has great comical timing. (9/10)

 scmidt

Channing Tatum: Jenko muscle of the comedy double act who finds himself in college finally getting a chance to fit in much like his time through high school first time. He gets a chance to live a different life which he never got a chance too with his connection with the football team, but his age will catch up with him. Channing gives a great performance showing he is just a muscle man he has comic timing too. (9/10)

channing

Peter Stormare: The Ghost drug deal the couple are after at first before he escapes, only to get into battle with him again once they uncover the truth about the supply at the college. Peter gives a solid performance giving his typical villain role. (7/10)

 

Wyatt Russell: Zook student that becomes good friends with Jenko, helping him get into the good with the sports team. The clues point to Zook but after thinking about the clues they realize they are reading things incorrectly about the fun loving footballer. Wyatt gives a good performance who has good chemistry with Channing. (8/10)

 

Amber Stevens: Maya student who befriends Schmidt and takes him down the calmer side of the college experience. After we are told she is the daughter of the Captain the comedy level raises. Amber gives a solid supporting performance. (6/10)

 maya

Support Cast: 22 Jump Street has a whole host of supporting characters who all give extra laughs, be in the Captain and his protection of his daughter or the jock who wants to take down the goal posts. They all add laughs the main characters work with.

 

Director Review: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller – Phil & Christopher direct this film almost perfectly to take the piss out of the idea it is a sequel and that the first one was successful after many other television shows turned films have bombed. (9/10)

 

Action: 22 Jump Street has good action with chases trying not to break anything while the villains smash everything. (8/10)

Comedy: 22 Jump Street is one of the best comedies I have seen in years, it offers plenty of puns that take the piss out of the idea of it being a sequel. (10/10)

Crime: 22 Jump Street focuses a lot of trying to solve the crime while undercover which works nicely for it. (8/10)

Chemistry: 22 Jump Street has some great chemistry between Jonah and Channing who create one of the best comedy duos in buddy cop history. (10/10)

Settings: 22 Jump Street moves to college which works as the actors are older and it pokes fun that they would have looked way too old for high school. (9/10)

Suggestion: 22 Jump Street is a must watch, you don’t even need to see the first one as it recaps you with a previously at the start. (Watch)

 

Best Part in 22 Jump Street: Chase for the campus.car

Worst Part in 22 Jump Street: I would say the supporting characters are slightly too stereotyped.

Best Action Scene In 22 Jump Street: Chase through the campus.

Funniest Scene in 22 Jump Street: The moment Captain Dickson finds out about Schmidt and his daughter.

 

Believability: No (0/10)

Chances of Tears: No (0/10)

Chances of Sequel: Yeah could have one.

Post Credits Scene: Jokes about what sequels could be in the future.

 

Oscar Chances: No

Box Office: $331 Million

Budget: $50 Million

Runtime: 1 Hour 52 Minutes

Tagline: These undercover cops are going to party like it’s their job

 

Overall: A Must Watch Comedy

https://moviesreview101.com/2014/12/22/22-jump-street-2014/
  
21 Jump Street (2012)
21 Jump Street (2012)
2012 | Action, Comedy, Crime
7
7.6 (36 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Back in 1987, the fledgling Fox Network debuted, offering entertainment on Saturday and Sunday evenings aimed at a younger audience. One of the network’s first breakout shows was a police drama with young cops and plenty of action, a show named 21 Jump Street. The show featured a cast of largely unknowns who quickly bolted to overnight notoriety, most notably its star Johnny Depp who, much to his chagrin, became a pinup boy and sex symbol for the show.

The show mixed humor, action, and romance. It followed a team of young officers who were part of a special undercover unit that infiltrated high schools and colleges where they posed as students to solve various campus crimes. Johnny Depp left the show after the fourth season, wanting to be taken seriously as a legitimate actor. The show soon ended one year later. Despite having run only five seasons and having a short-lived spinoff series for star Richard Grieco, “21 Jump Street” remained a pop-culture hit 25 years later.

As such, I had a lot of skepticism when I first heard that Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum would be bringing an updated, raunchier version to the big screen that was heavy on laughs and would definitely aim for an R-rated. This theatrical version stars Hill as Officer Schmidt and Tatum as Officer Jenko, two young officers who met while in high school and, despite being on opposite ends of the social spectrum, bonded and became close friends during their time at the police academy years after graduation. When the duo find their lives as bike cops not as exciting as they had hoped and after they bungle their first chance at a significant arrest, the duo find themselves reassigned to the revived Jump Street project.

Schmidt, in spite of his misgivings, decides to face his fear of the horror that was high school decides to give it another chance. Jenko is soon horrified to see that the social structure that he dominated back in his day has clearly turned upside down. Jocks are no longer the big men on campus, replaced by sensitive New Age types. Nerds that he preyed upon are now the cool kids in school.

After the death of a student who took a new designer drug he bought at school, Schmidt and Jenko are assigned to find the dealers, infiltrate the gang and get to the bottom of the drug distribution ring and stop it at all costs. This proves to be easier said than done, especially for Schmidt. He begins to really relish his new found popularity in school and he starts to live the high school experience that he only dreamed about back in his day. Further complicating matters is Molly (Brie Larson), an attractive high school senior who quickly catches Schmidt’s attention and becomes a focal point of his day-to-day activities.

Jenko, on the other hand, finds himself struggling as the former high school kingpin now finds himself a social outcast, spending much of his time with the chemistry nerds trying to find a way to work the social structure to get to the bottom of the school’s drug trade.

Now what would be a simple assignment for two seasoned cops becomes completely unhinged for the to raw recruits who become more obsessed with social status than their mission and take extreme measures to ingratiate themselves with their new classmates. This all comes at a cost as their bond becomes strained due to Schmidt’s rapidly ascending social status and their continued inability to crack the case.

Now this is a premise that has been done countless times in numerous cop films. “21 Jump Street” has a bold and fresh formula that deftly mixes elements of the gross-out teen comedy with an action-adventure film. While the film drags a bit in the middle, there are some incredibly funny jokes throughout the film. The action in the film is solid and fits well with the story rather than trying to spice things up with random explosions.

I loved how the film, based on a story co-written by Jonah Hill, and produced by both Hill and Tatum, took a fresh approach to the subject matter but also respectfully made fun of the source material, banking on nostalgia while updating it for a younger audience.

I can easily say this was probably Jonah Hill’s best comedy to date as they were numerous laugh out loud moments in the film and he and Tatum make a fantastic duo, playing extremely well off one another. There are also several cameos in the film and strong supporting work from Ice Cube, who plays the extremely agitated captain of the inept cops placed under his command. The film sets up very well for a sequel and I understand that there’s already preparation underway should this one do well at the box office.

“21 Jump Street” is easily the funniest movie I’ve seen this year. I have not laughed this much, for all the right reasons, in quite a long time. Hip and fresh again, there’s plenty of bounce left in “21 Jump Street.”
  
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156Reviews (7 KP) rated Emma (2020) in Movies

May 1, 2020  
Emma (2020)
Emma (2020)
2020 | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Have you ever been at a dinner party that has gone on little too long? You were greeted warmly, settled quickly and comfortably, it's been fun, the company has been in fine form, spinning anecdotes that have entertained. But towards the end, you've all run out of things to say, no one quite knows if it's time to leave or not and it's all got a bit awkward.

I could end my review there, I think you get the point I'm trying to make, but almost the entire cast of this film deserve more, each of them pulling up what would be quite a laborious and dull film into something better, something unworthy of such a cold explanation.

The film starts with Emma (Ana Taylor-Joy) having recently played matchmaker and having had everything very much her way, as the title screen puts it, “Having lived twenty-one years in the world with very little to vex her”, she sees the people around her as entertainment, in the way a child plays with their dolls, marrying them off and assuming that they will live happily ever after. Taylor-Joy is does magnificently in this role, portraying Emma with child-like innocence, while still showing us a character that is all scheming and intelligence, but without any malice, it's a fine line to walk and she does it excellently.

With this in mind she picks up a new friend in Harriet Smith, a young and naive woman played by Mia Goth, a very different role than we've seen her in before, Mia attacks this with a level of enthusiasm and energy that only a few could get away with. Emma intends to marry her friend to Mr Elton (Josh O'Connor), the leader of the local church, whose awkward nature and odd gestures are one of many comedic points of the film, but not all goes to plan.

Director Autumn de Wilde does a wonderful job immersing you into a world of bright pastel colours, handsome characters and sweet lavish deserts, showing you not a period accurate representation, but a view into the way Emma sees the world. This is what the film does best, immersing you into 1800's social networking. Status and decorum is what matters, so that when the minor insults and social faux pas' start coming we understand the gravity of each action, however slight they are.

The film has great talent throughout, their roles could easily come across cliché or bit-part, but are elevated by the skill and subtlety of the people playing them. Johnny Flynn is Mr Knightly, the misunderstood good-guy, but makes it sincere and caring, though we are left to guess why he seems to live with Emma. Bill Nighy is the cranky old father with barely anything to do, but manages to steal entire scenes with just a withering look, and Miranda Hart playing, well, Miranda Hart.

Unfortunately, this all gets dragged down by its excessive length and lack of surprise. At just over two hours run-time even the sharp wit of the earlier scenes start to seem like a distant memory, and as the ending you saw coming from around the hour mark unfolds, you'll start to wonder why it took such a long journey to get there.
  
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    Monster Trucks Nitro 2

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Hamilton (2020)
Hamilton (2020)
2020 | Biography, Drama, History, Musical
10
8.2 (17 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Captures the power of being in "the room where it happens"
I'll just cut to the chase, the filmed version of the mega-hit stage musical HAMILTON (now streaming on Disney+) is terrific. If you are one of the few that have not seen this, check it out - you'll be glad you did.

I could go on and on about the Pulitzer-Prize winning show, the script, the music, the performances and/or the cross-cultural casting - all of which works to perfection, but what separates this film from the other hit Broadway shows that are converted to film is how well that the filmmakers were able to translate the power of being inside the theater during a live performance of this show.

Credit, of course, needs to go to the visionaries responsible for this show, creator/writer/star Lin-Manuel Miranda and Director Thomas Kail. They realized pretty early on (when the show was becoming the phenomenon that it has become) that they wanted to preserve this event for future generations, so started making plans to film the show - in High Def - with an audience and without an audience (for close-ups). In June 2016, about a month before the original cast started leaving the show (and right after the show won 11 Tony Awards), they spent $10 million to capture the show - with live audiences on Sunday and Tuesday and then spent the rest of Sunday night and all day Monday doing close-ups and crane shots to augment the action.

The results are outstanding. The wide-shots show the breadth of the production - showing the strong, Tony Award winning choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler, the unique, minimal and highly versatile set, the Tony Award winning costumes by Paul Tazewell and the Lighting Design that earned Howell Blinkley a Tony. All of these are showcased in this film - special note should be made about the Lighting that needed to be tweaked on the spot for the filming.

As for the close-ups, they showcase the wry smile and comedic delight that Tony winner Daveed Diggs shows in his roles as Lafayette/Jefferson, the power and sorrow of Tony Award winner Renee Elise Goldsberry - her spotlight number SATISFIED is as "perfect" a musical number as you will ever see. The powerful acting of Leslie Odom, Jr. as Aaron Burr (who won the Tony as Best Actor over Lin-Manuel's performance as Hamilton) as well as terrific supporting turns by the likes of Anthony Ramos (Lawrence/Phillip), Chris Jackson (showing real leadership as George Washington) and Okieriete Onaodwoan as Hercules Mulligan (one of my absolute favorite characters in this show)./James Madison.

Special note should be made to Jonathan Groff's portrayal of King George III - it is, basically, a cameo role, but he is filmed with such tight close-ups (showing spittle rolling down has chin as he sings) that marvelously juxtaposes King George's real emotions with that of the words he is speaking.

But, of course, the real star is Lin-Manuel Miranda - the genius creative force behind Hamilton. Interestingly enough, I thought his performance was the weakest of the lead cast (don't get me wrong, he was still excellent - just not "as excellent" as some of the others). His true vision, of course, was to tell the story of "the people of that era" as told by "the people of our era".

That is the true genius of Hamilton.

Letter Grade: A+

10 stars out of 10 (can I turn this up to 11)?
  
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