Almost Subversive, The Lego Movie Hedges Its Bets!

The Good: Good voice cast, Themes, Good plot progression
The Bad: Overstates itself, “Twist” guts the adult aspects, Predictable
The Basics: The Lego Movie has a strong start, but becomes unfortunately obvious and thematically heavy-handed.


There are only a handful of films from 2014 that I am still looking forward to seeing. Near the top of the list was The Lego Movie and so, as the new year gets under way and my wife and I have more date nights, it was one of our first choices to pick up and watch. The Lego Movie initially lives up to its promise of being a smart, thematically-subversive film intended far more for adults than the obvious children’s audience. With its impressive voice cast, most of whom are familiar to adults as opposed to children, The Lego Movie is a fun film.

In fact, the real issues with The Lego Movie come from overstating itself. In the last fifteen minutes of the film, there is a twist that nails the themes home in such a way that The Lego Movie pretty much mortgages its own themes and cleverness. While The Lego Movie makes allusions to things like The Empire Strikes Back (reviewed here!) and has some generally adult themes on the nature of capitalism and social order, it plays a number of its jokes over and over again, making it a tougher sell than it should have been.

Emmet is an ordinary worker in the Lego block world that is surprisingly mundane. He is a construction worker who follows all the rules and has a very regular schedule. President Business runs both the government and the big business in the world and the citizens are thrilled when he announces the forthcoming Taco Tuesday. As Emmet is leaving his construction site, he sees a mysterious stranger, Wyldstyle, who is sifting through the rubble for something. Emmet wakes up with a device – the Piece Of Resistance - stuck to his back, in the custody of Bad Cop. Emmet is rescued by Wyldstyle, who takes him to Vitruvius.

Vitruvius explains that Emmet is The Special, a man of prophecy. It is his destiny to bring the Piece Of Resistance to Lord Business’s Kragle weapon and stop the villain from unleashing his weapon upon the many Lego realms. Pursued by Bad Cop’s forces (after President Business removes his “Good Cop” alter-ego), Emmet, Wyldstyle, and Vitruvius try to escape using their imaginations to reorganize their vehicles. Rescued by Batman, the heroes head to Cloud Cuckooland where all of the disparate Master Builders are meeting to plan how to get the Piece Of Resistance to the Kragle. But Bad Cop’s forces break things up and soon the heroes are fleeing once again. While Emmet slowly learns how to live up to his potential, Lord Business begins to reveal his maniacal plans!

For a film that is basically an advertisement for every property Warner Brothers is affiliated with (the DC Comics universe, Harry Potter, LEGO The Lord Of The Rings), The Lego Movie does a decent job of attacking corporate mechanisms. Lord Business utterly screws over his most loyal lieutenant and that plays well throughout the film.

The Lego Movie utilizes an incredibly talented voice cast. Led by Chris Pratt as Emmet, The Lego Movie has fun vocal performances from Will Ferrell, Morgan Freeman, Elizabeth Banks, Charlie Day and Will Arnett. Each member of the cast is expert at emoting using only their voice talents and whatever problems exist with the film, the cast and their line deliveries are not at fault.

The Lego Movie looks good and has moments of charm, but it plunges into average territory as it progresses and takes a safe, albeit somewhat surprising, route. The departure from the main narrative beats home the themes the film was building to and it undermines the imagination and style of the film. The result is that The Lego Movie is good, but far from flawless.

For other works with Chris Pratt, please visit my reviews of:
Guardians Of The Galaxy
Her
Movie 43
The Five-Year Engagement
Moneyball
Bride Wars
Wanted
Strangers With Candy

5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Outside The Self-Referential Bits, 22 Jump Street Is An Unremarkable Sequel!

The Good: A few funny jokes, One or two performances
The Bad: Obvious plot and character arcs, Most of the humor falls flat
The Basics: A largely unremarkable sequel, 22 Jump Street pretty much just rehashes the first film.


Summer Blockbuster Season has hit a lull of sequels. Outside the new X-Men film, the sequels I have seen so far this summer have been complete duds. Sadly, 22 Jump Street does not break the string of unremarkable sequels hitting theaters this summer. A straightforward comedy, 22 Jump Street is the sequel to the cinematic reimagining 21 Jump Street (reviewed here!) and it is not at all necessary to see the first film before catching the sequel. In fact, the strength and weakness of 22 Jump Street is that it more or less recreates 21 Jump Street. The weakness of 22 Jump Street’s forced recreation of the first film’s plot is that viewers who saw 21 Jump Street will see all of the relationship jokes coming miles away. The strength of 22 Jump Street reusing the plot of the prior film is that some of the jokes that reference the film’s nature are the funniest of the movie.

Where 21 Jump Street was a comedic reimagining of the FOX television series, 22 Jump Street is a parody of its predecessor and a mockery of sequels in general. That means aspects like the delightful cameo provided by Johnny Depp (let’s face it, Richard Greico was going to be available, so that the film got him was not a surprise at all) are absent from the new sequel. Twelve hours after watching 22 Jump Street, only two jokes stood out enough to be memorable. The unlikely subject of a sequel, 22 Jump Street continues the story of Odd Couple cops Schmidt and Jenko.

Following their success at busting a high school drug ring, Schmidt and Jenko continue to work for the narcotics division. There, they have a terrible bust which leads to an octopus launching itself on Schmidt’s face and a gun fight that does more damage than good. The pair reports to Chief Hardy, who assigns the pair to 22 Jump Street where he expects they will do exactly what they did before (exactly!) by going undercover at McState College where a murder has occurred during a narcotic’s deal. Arriving at McState, Schmidt and Jenko work hard to get involved with college groups that might have a drug connection. As the undercover police officers investigate the campus connections for WHY-PHY (Work Hard, Yes – Play Hard, Yes), Schmidt and Jenko begin to experience torsion in their relationship.

Jenko befriends a football player and gets into the local fraternity, which leaves Schmidt working the art scene angle. There, Schmidt hooks up with Maya the college student . . . who turns out to be Captain Dickson’s daughter! After Jenko and Schmidt apparently close the case (the exact same way as before!), the result of their investigation does not sit well with either of them. The two reteam to find The Ghost and stop the WHY-PHY trade at the college.

Fundamentally, the problem with 22 Jump Street is that it is essentially the same film as 21 Jump Street. In addition to having a similar pulse-pounding soundtrack, 22 Jump Street has virtually the same character conflict as its predecessor. In fact, the only real character change in 22 Jump Street is that Schmidt gets laid and the idea of him getting exposed to Captain Dickson offers one of the film’s few moments of joy. It also offers Channing Tatum a wonderful moment to let loose as Jenko in a way that his goofy jock character did not open up in the first film.

The plot of 22 Jump Street is deliberately derivative of the first film and that makes Nick Offerman’s brief role in the film a chance for the often deadpan actor to completely deliver comedically. Outside Offerman and a single moment of Tatum exploding with mockery, the acting in 22 Jump Street is unremarkable. Jonah Hill plays Schmidt with the same deadpan as before and the sheer number of attempts to play the joke wherein Jenko fails completely to improvise in a dangerous situation wears thin quickly.

22 Jump Street is a tough film to say more about; it truly is a case of “if you’ve seen the original, you’ve seen the sequel” and the lack of spark or zest to the movie makes 22 Jump Street impressive only in that it could ever dominate the box office. That such an utterly forgettable film did so well is more of a reflection on the weak market than the quality of 22 Jump Street.

For other comedy sequels, please check out my reviews of:
The Whole Ten Yards
Horrible Bosses 2
The Hangover, Part III

3.5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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21 Jump Street Is Not Without Its Charms (But It’s Still A Lousy Movie)!

The Good: Moments of humor, Moments of performance
The Bad: Plot is ridiculous, Much of the humor could be stuck in a completely different movie, Character elements are abandoned as opposed to developed.
The Basics: When Jenko and Schmidt show no real aptitude for police work, they are transferred to an undercover unit and sent back to high school in a largely unfunny film.


Here at the outset, it is wise for me to state directly that I have never seen a single episode of the late-1980s television series 21 Jump Street. As a result, I have no basis for reference in comparing the new film to the old television series and so this review will contain none of that. That said, I was pretty sure 21 Jump Street was a gritty drama and the new film 21 Jump Street was a pretty inane comedy, which made me disappointed that I left work early and drove two states away for the screening.

21 Jump Street was not worth it. At the same time, given how many previews I saw before other movies in theaters recently for 21 Jump Street, the film exceeded my expectations. In other words, it was a pretty bad movie, but it was nowhere near as bad as I initially suspected it would be. Those who like buddy cop comedies, like The Other Guys (reviewed here!) are actually fairly likely to enjoy this rendition of 21 Jump Street. As one who expects a little more from movies, 21 Jump Street had one or two laughs that were not in the trailers, but little else that was worthwhile to keep my interest. And (not to pile on) the pacing in the movie was off, so the film felt long despite not exceeding the minimum ninety minute standard by very much at all.

In high school, Schmidt was a geek, picked on by the jocks and Jenko was one of the jocks who abused him. Years later, they meet up in the police academy where Schmidt is struggling with the physical requirements and Jenko is washing out on the academics. The two form an unlikely partnership and when they graduate, they are assigned as partners to the same beat. Unfortunately, their first attempt at an arrest is such an unmitigated disaster when they try to take down a drug-using bike gang. Following their failure to make a single successful arrest, they are “promoted” to a clandestine operation on Jump Street. When they report to Captain Dickson there, they are given their assignment.

Assigned to go undercover at the high school, Schmidt and Jenko are tasked with finding the supplier of what appears to be a new synthetic drug (H.F.S.) infiltrating the school district. When “Doug” and “Brad” mix up their identities because Jenko is just that dumb that he can’t remember his alter-ego’s name initially, their situation gets complicated. Suddenly, Schmidt has to pretend to be both a track star and a drama enthusiast while Jenko struggles to fit in in AP Chemistry. So, while teachers gat randy over Jenko and become suspicious over Schmidt, the pair works to fit in and find the source of the new drug. With the main dealer being a douchebag named Eric, the pair struggles to keep it together long enough to find the supplier. In the process, they create mayhem and follow a pretty obvious path that is anything but worthy of law enforcement.

It is hard to get upset about the way law enforcement officers are treated in 21 Jump Street; it is a comedy and writers Michael Bacall and Jonah Hill poke fun at pretty much everyone in the movie. The young people are sheep, the teachers are lecherous horndogs and the police officers are pretty moronic; everyone gets it in 21 Jump Street. Despite how the movie is equal opportunity in its jokes, 21 Jump Street is not terribly good. The funniest moments involving the police all involve self-referential aspects that break the fourth wall of 21 Jump Street. So, for example, when Captain Dickson (played by Ice Cube) decries his own character as an angry black stereotype, it is amusing much the way Nick Offerman’s initial deployment of the guys to 37 Jump Street works. But even these self-referential gags are hardly flawless. Offerman’s reference to recycled ideas from the past is played with the same tongue-in-cheek irony that Kevin Smith used in decrying Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back (reviewed here!!) within the film itself.

On the plot front, 21 Jump Street is very predictable. In fact, this is a largely formulaic film and unfortunately, much of the humor is also telegraphed well in advance. Watching 21 Jump Street, I got the feeling that Bacall (and Hill, though he is only credited with story, not screenplay) had jokes he wanted to use in other projects that he just stuck into 21 Jump Street. As a result, there are sequences that feel forced or out of place for this particular movie. Those moments distract from the story and often involve humor that is more slapstick in nature and that helps bring the overall feel of 21 Jump Street into a territory that is more boring than actually bad. Parts of 21 Jump Street feel uncomfortably long, despite it being a very average film in terms of duration. Moreover, so much of the humor is thinly disguised “rule of three” humor. While the exploding chickens gag got a lot of laughs in the screening I attended, it seemed far too obvious to me after the two prior, defused, gags.

The character front is where 21 Jump Street almost had me. There is an initially charming aspect to Schmidt that is fun to watch. He is brainy and picked on and he is interesting as he does the whole poseur white rapper thing. Unfortunately, from pretty much the moment Schmidt and Jenko hit the high school, his intelligence is diminished. Rather than trying to take alternative tactics to reaching their undercover goal, Schmidt quickly becomes overcome with the idea of being a popular kid himself. While the commentary that he would have been a cool kid had he only been born ten years later is truly worthy of reflection, it is quickly buried in more jokes and cheap gags. Conversely, Jenko shows no real substantive growth after he understands that Schmidt has something useful to him and it is better to treat him better than fail out of the Academy.

As for the acting, Jonah Hill gives viewers nothing we haven’t seen before from him in other comedies. He is solid and too often the humor is supposed to be in him just bugging his eyes out and looking goofy. Channing Tatum is surprisingly good as Jenko, though. He plays the straightman well, but in 21 Jump Street he actually smiles and loosens his body language enough to seem human. As Jenko, Tatum is unlike the tight, disciplined characters he usually plays and there are moments he truly nails the whole “dumb jock” thing.

I wanted to write that Dave Franco had something like a standout performance, but the truth is that even before doing the research, it was clear he was related to James Franco. Dave slouches through the role of Eric doing what he can to get by with a smirk too often to truly be considered charismatic. Unfortunately for Dave, James beat him to the niche; to prove himself as an actor he will have to . . . well, act. And act like someone other than James Franco.

Unfortunately, what charm there is in 21 Jump Street is almost completely negated by the supporting performances (Rob Riggle does his usual schtick in a way that makes me truly loathe it when he pops up) and the predictable elements. 21 Jump Street might not be the worst film ever, but it is definitely not one to get excited about paying for. When it hits DVD, by all means, get it out free from your library to have a good popcorn movie, but if you’re looking for genuine entertainment, you’ll have to go much farther than 21 Jump Street.

For other works with Jonah Hill please visit my reviews of:
Moneyball
Megamind
How To Train Your Dragon
Cyrus
The Invention Of Lying
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
The 40 Year Old Virgin

4/10

For other movie reviews, please visit my Movie Review Index Page for a complete listing of all the films I have reviewed!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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