Muppets Most Wanted / 22 Jump Street

Though Muppets Most Wanted isn't a sequel per se (it's actually the eighth Muppet film all in all) it has a similar approach to 22 Jump Street when addressing how follow up films can better what came previously. That is, they just blatantly say they can't and what you're about to watch is basically the same as what you paid for last time out. Hell, the Muppets film even starts with a song and dance number addressing this exact point. It's a risky approach and, the intentional irony aside, the self-prophecy soon comes true. Starting with the puppets first, the last film was a right barrel of laughs, helped in no end by the decision to have many of the chuckles based on a self-referential basis. This film follows the same approach, with the gags dotted around the plot which involves the Muppets getting unintentionally mixed up in a number of jewel heists thanks to a Kermit the Frog lookalike. Director James Bobin returns and does a steady job, but the film misses the affection that Jason Siegel's input into the last script bought to the previous outing and this feels more like we're just going through the motions, not helped by a ridiculous number of pointless and unfunny cameos (Lady Gaga is literally in it for about three seconds). On the plus side Ty Burrell is great as a French Interpol agent, Tina Fey looks pleased to be doing something other than 30 Rock and it's hard to be totally against a film starring Kermit and Co, especially one that throws in a reference to Park Chan-wook's Oldboy! Moving on to 22 Jump Street, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are Hollywood's current golden boys, but even they falter somewhat here with the "wink-wink-it's the same plot" approach (this time Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill are trying to infiltrate a drugs ring in college as opposed to high school). Using irony as the excuse of repeating the same storyline over again can't cover the laziness of the approach of Hill and Michael Bacall's treatment. On the plus side, though it lacks the smarts of Lord and Miller's previous work, it just about falls on the right side of the line due to still being very funny in parts, particularly during the end credits which are utterly hilarious and have had more thought put into them than the whole script of most Hollywood comedies. There's also a great gag revolving round the mis-pronunciation of Cate Blanchett and nobody does a better unimpressed face than Ice Cube. Basically, it's a case of if you like 21 you'll like 22, but this is vastly inferior to the original film with great moments counter-balanced by too many segments that fall flat. An extra mark mind for those cracking end credits. Muppets Rating: 6/10. Jump Rating: 7/10.