22 Jump Street

There's something very unusual about the deleted scenes on the "22 Jump Street" Blu-ray disc. These aren't throwaway gags, or lost subplots: Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller have, in many cases, cut out the emotional through line of their own movie.

In "22," Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum,) solve the case of a new synthetic drug tearing up college campuses. Schmidt falls in love with a student named Maya, who he later learns is the daughter of his own boss (Ice Cube), which creates numerous interpersonal problems for all involved. (Maya is angry at her Dad for screwing up her relationship, her Dad is mad at Schmidt for starting the relationship, and Schmidt is mad because he'd like to be having sex with Maya again.) What's incredible is that all the resolutions to this plot - the hugging, the learning, the "character arcs" - aren't in the movie. That's what's been cut - not random jokes.

So what's left, then, with so many remnants of the quote-unquote "plot" on the cutting room floor? Nothing but screwballs. Every scene of the film is a comic set-piece (even the process of unpacking is made livewire with on-screen text and rhythmic editing), every line of dialogue a setup for a joke. One of the deleted scenes is the original, more traditional ending - the new one, which doesn't wrap up loose threads, throws the film full-on into the realm of the bugnuts satire. The Jump Street series has always fashioned Hill and Tatum as a modern-day Martin and Lewis, and "22" solidifies the fact that this team can create films just as wild and allergic-to-formula as Dean and Jerry did with their primary director, the great Frank Tashlin. This movie may not be perfectly crafted, but it's perfectly anarchic.

There's many other extra features on the disc aside from the 40-minute collection of deleted scenes: A set of featurettes (five of them, ranging from seven to ten minutes each) that look at the cast, crew and setting; an audio commentary with the directors and the stars; and finally, "joke-a-palooza" and "line-o-rama," which are essentially deleted jokes (rather than full deleted scenes.)

The last extra feature is entitled "The Dramatic Interpretation of 22 Jump Street," and is exactly what it sounds like: A 10-minute cut of the film that speeds through each individual scene by cutting out all the jokes, leaving only a threadbare plot. There's even a re-shot ending to make sure things end on a "dramatic" note. Like the film itself, this is hardly a moving enterprise - but, to its immense credit, it's as loony as a cartoon.

"22 Jump Street"
Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack
$40.99
sonypictures.com