21 Jump Street is the latest TV series from the 80’s to be adapted for the big screen. The original 21 Jump Street was gritty crime drama in which baby-faced cops go undercover in high school, and it helped launch the career of Johnny Depp. However, instead of following this format, the filmmakers made the new version an action comedy film. It’s sort of the same thing that was done with Starsky and Hutch and The Green Hornet. However, this didn’t turn out to be a bad idea.
21 Jump Street follows two immature police officers Morton Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Greg Jenko (Channing Tatum) as two immature cops who are sent to 21 Jump Street, which is a revived police unit. The two have to go undercover as siblings attending a local high school to find the supplier and distributor of a new dangerous party drug that makes ecstasy look tame.
However, the two officers weren’t exactly best friends back in high school. Schmidt was a nerd donning fashion cues from Eminem, which gave him the nickname Not-So-Slim Shady, and Tatum was a cool, but clueless jock. Naturally, there is conflict between the two as Schmidt is trying to find popularity and Jenko is struggling with the fact on how much high school has changed. For example, Eco-friendly kids are now cool and no one wears their backpack with just one strap anymore.
All of the performances are very good. Hill is as funny as ever, whether he’s thin or fat. Channing Tatum is surprisingly hilarious in the film. We are used to seeing him in a plethora of dull romance movies and mindless action films that we hardly see his comedic side. Here’s hoping that he’ll play in more comedic roles like this. Plus Hill and Tatum have amazing chemistry together as they play off of each other so well that I wouldn’t mind seeing them in other movie together. The script, written by Michael Becall, is filled with raunchy humor and gross out gags, but that’s to be expected since he wrote the outrageous party movie Project X, which came out a few weeks ago. Becall also co-wrote the script for the underrated comedy, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. So if you’ve seen Scott Pilgrim you can see where 21 Jump Street gets some of its quirky humor from.
The film is more of a spoof of the gritty drama series instead of an accurate portrayal of the series. Fans of the original TV show probably won’t like that, but the film still works in its own way. Plus some viewers probably can’t get over the fact that Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum are supposed to be in high school. It’s definitely stretching the premise thin as Hill is 28 and Tatum is 31, but there are some clever lines in the script that address this situation. In addition, some of the action scenes are clunky and the standard car chases are just plain routine, but there are a few twists in the scenes to make them enjoyable. Also the third act isn’t as strong as I hoped it would be. Nevertheless, there is a surprise cameo in the film that should excite everyone.
21 Jump Street is a fresh and entertaining 1980’s reboot which pays off most of the time. If you can get past some of the ridiculous elements of the film then you’ll enjoy it.
21 Jump Street - 3/4
No comments:
Post a Comment