With some sly remarks about sequels, more of the same, but bigger, 22 Jump Street takes Jenko (Channing Tatum) and Schmidt (Jonah Hill) to college. Once again, the film walks a fine line between raunchy/silly comedy to delivering a commentary on relationships, bromance, and box-office budgets.

When the pair are shipped off to college for a case that Dickson (Ice Cube) insists is the same as the first time, Jenko and Schmidt find their relationship under strain, as Jenko is once again on top of the world, when he pairs up with the local football team, including Zook (Wyatt Russell) and confronting the dangerous drug lord, Ghost (Peter Stormare).

Meanwhile, Schmidt starts a relationship with the lovely Maya (Amber Stevens West) only to learn a horrifying secret.

Set against the backdrop of stereotypical college life with classes, parties, poetry slams, and spring break, the pair find their relationship and their case tried. Will they be able to solve the crime and stop another drug from going viral, just like last time?

With great callbacks, returning characters, surprise cameos (the end credits are brilliant), Lord and Miller make sure, once again, to deliver lots of great laughs while also exploring the need for relationships (and sequels?) to grow, otherwise they simply become trapped in a cycle.

Hill and Tatum continue to have a great on-screen chemistry, and it becomes surprisingly effective when the characters aren’t vibing with one another. You find yourself laughing, but still understand the pain the characters are feeling.

And man, the laughs come fast and furious. All the commentary on budgets, and making things bigger to double profitability, it all works within the context of the story, but also a sly wink on filmmaking.

I can totally admit when I’m wrong about something, and I was incredibly wrong about this pair of films. Sure, like I said in the first one, I’m not a huge Jonah Hill fan, but he and Tatum both seem made for these roles, and they are great together, and Lord and Miller get the best out of them and the rest of the cast – Ice Cube is a scene-stealer each and every time he shows on screen.

Fun, loud, and delivering a skewered, but entirely accurate view of college, the sequel is just as strong as the first film, something not all sequels can claim, and it also lets the characters grow while being true to what the audiences expect from them, and a Lord and Miller film.

It’s too bad the Men in Black/Jumpstreet thing never took off.