This sequel to the hit action comedy 21 Jump Street is better all around: the pacing is more consistent, the sight gags more imaginative, the self-referential jokes sharper. Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller make good on their background in animation (Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, The Lego Movie); the action sequences, unlike those of the first movie, have a sustained kinetic energy, and the throwaway gags are delivered at such breakneck speed that this occasionally evokes old Looney Tunes cartoons. Too often, though, the satire of action-movie bombast is indistinguishable from the bombast itself (large-scale destruction, over-loud sound effects, actors yelling all their dialogue). With Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube, and lots of stand-up comedians in supporting roles.
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