Movie Review: 21 Jump Street (2012)

 

21 Jump Street

A movie review by Dave Randal

March 28, 2012

Genre: Action | Comedy

 Cast: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Dave Franco, Rob Riggle, Ice Cube

Director: Phil Lord, Chris Miller

Writers: Michael Bacall(screenplay and story), Jonah Hill(story), Patrick Hasburgh and Stephen J. Cannell(TV series)

Studios: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Original Film, Lord Miller Productions, Relativity Media

Distributed by: Columbia Pictures

Release Date: March 16, 2012 (USA)

Plot: A pair of underachieving cops are sent back to a local high school to blend in and bring down a synthetic drug ring.
Want to know more about this movie?: 21 Jump Street(2012) IMDb Page

About two years ago I watched the first four seasons of the 21 Jump Street series. I first heard about it a couple years ago when they brought it up on a VH1 pop culture show. A lot of people today say it was just a cheesy show, but it actually wasn't that bad at all. It featured a young Johnny Depp and had a nice mix of drama and a little bit of comedy. The scenarios for the episodes were good in that they didn't just feature young looking cops going under cover into high schools, but they also featured a lot of serious political and social topics which surprised me. I can't say the same thing for this updated movie, but that isn't exactly a bad thing.

In the movie Jonah Hill plays Schmidt, a former misfit in high school who is trying to become a police officer. His bully from high school, Jenko, played by Channing Tatum, is also trying to become a police officer. Schmidt is good at the academic part of police work while Jenko is good at the athletic part of police work. They both decide to help each other and eventually graduate from the police academy. After they mess up their first arrest they are transferred to a program where cops go under cover in high schools to go after drug rings and other trouble makers.

Being a fan of the TV series I was very worried about what they would do with the story. I was worried they would make it like all the other old TV series that are made into movies and just make it a goofy comedy. That is kind of what they did, but they were much more clever going about it than other similar movies. I know a lot of people were worried about this movie due to Jonah Hill being in it. The movie was pretty much Jonah Hill's idea and I think it is no secret that Jonah Hill has a lot of haters.

The parts where they were clever and poked fun at Hollywood were not very subtle, but they were so true that I couldn't help but laugh. For years people like me have been chastising Hollywood as a whole for making so many stupid remakes and the filmmakers in this movie decided to wink at us and let us know that they agree. They even poked fun at themselves throughout the movie, because I think they know that no one was expecting a 21 Jump Street movie. I mean hell anyone under the age of 25 years old has probably never or just barley heard of the original TV series.

Even though Jonah Hill has a lot of haters I am not one of them. Sure he plays a similar character in all of the comedy movies that he appears in, but I think that is fine because of lot of great actors who worked mostly in comedies have done that. Channing Tatum also has his fair share of haters and I've never been a huge fan of his, but in this movie he really shines. He may not be the greatest actor, but he reminds me a lot of a young Mark Wahlberg which is definitely a good thing. In the movie Tatum and Hill have great chemistry and I wouldn't mind seeing them team up in some more movies. The movie also featured James Franco's younger brother Dave Franco who also did a great job.

The story itself is pretty good although I do think it would have been better if they had played up the drama a bit more. It can be really hard to mix drama and comedy and I think they tried to do that a little bit here, but overall I think they were going for more comedy than drama. One criticism that I have for the movie is that I don't understand why they only made Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum's characters 25 years old when they are both older than that. Watching the trailer and seeing Jonah Hill's character dress up like Eminem made me think they were playing their real age, but it actually shows them graduating in 2005. I was still in high school in 2005 and I can assure anyone that not even the geeky kids were dressing up like Eminem.

I really enjoyed the movie and was glad to see it get good reviews. I think it deserves all the praise it gets. If you are a fan of the original TV series and are worried about how they made it into a goofy comedy then don't worry too much. They don't forget the fans of the original TV series and do some cool stuff that only the fans of the the series will understand. Although I think the story could have been structured a little bit better there is hardly anything bad I can say about the movie.

Dave Randal's Rating- Thumbs Up
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Dave Randal's Star Rating- ★★★★(4) out of ★★★★★(5)