MOVIE REVIEW: 21 Jump Street

Reviewing the film "21 Jump Street" starring Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill together with Ice Cube courtesy of Columbia Pictures.

GIST: The movie is a testosterone fueled movie filled with dirty jokes and high school humor. It's actually quite funny and somewhere along the grossly funny moments you will definitely see how much things have changed in the real world. Also this has got to be one of the funniest movie starring Jonah Hill.

Now for the details.




Now if you're not familiar with "21 Jump Street" it's the TV show that launched the career of a certain Johnny Depp.

Here's the basic premise. The good guys were assigned to the Jump Street precinct to help infiltrate different schools where big crimes and various criminal activities go under the radar. The series went on for a few seasons until Depp left the show to pursue a bigger Hollywood career.

Anyway for the new generation, Columbia rehashes the old 80s TV series and turns it around while at the same time also provides a fresh introduction to the new generation of what the TV show was all about. The movie features Tatum as Jenko and Jonah Hill as Schmidt. Think of these two as the Laurel and Hardy of their batch. It's pretty funny how they managed to even land a job as police officers.These two blokes suck at being police officers they even forgot to read the "Miranda Rights" for their first ever arrest which nullifies the case.

As the predictable as it may be, these two coppers get re-assigned to the 21 Jump Street Precinct where they would have to go undercover as high school or college students and foil all types of crap. This is where the hilarity officially begins.

In one brilliant moment of self depreciation, their former precinct captain informs them that the force is "reviving an old program from the 80's because they are already running out of ideas". I could've taken it the wrong way but I can certainly say that it's a sweet way of mocking the current remake trends in Hollywood.

Okay, the movie was good IMHO. It's got a lot of great laugh a minute moments including that cleverly written car chase scene with ill-timed explosions. (How the hell does that work, you have to watch the movie to find out). If you watch closely, you would notice that its poking fun at the different stereotypes that can now be seen in high schools around the world.

If I can say anything else about this film, its got to be a funny way at looking at the way teenagers together with their schools have evolved. Gone are the days when the football jocks and the cheerleaders get to be called the "Kings and Queens of School". in this day and age, its the geeks that rule.

...And to quote Tatum's character Jenko/Brad "THIS IS ALL GLEE'S FAULT".

21 Jump Street also proved to us that Tatum can do comedy as much as he can do drama (See my review of "The Vow".) But again IMHO, the real star of the show is a slimmed-out Jonah Hill fresh from his Moneyball role. Sure there might be a couple of scenes where it's annoying to see him but from what I saw, it actually looked like it was his show.

Again guys, the story is pretty predictable. I'm not saying it like its a bad thing but more of a good thing because with that out of the way, you can easily just sit back and enjoy the movie for what it is. A good action/adventure/comedy hybrid featuring the dude from Super Bad, the dude from GI Joe and one angry Ice Cube.

Might I say that the whole bit about how high school being different from what it was a decade ago is quite true. While watching the movie, I had to tell myself - MY GOD! IF YOU WERE IN HIGH SCHOOL TODAY, YOU WOULD PROBABLY BE THE COOL GUY and NOT THE UNDERDOG. Yes, its in all caps because I just wanted to emphasize how much things have changed since the yuppies graduated from High School.

So if you're like me and enjoy a good cop movie with a few twist, you can catch the sneak preview for Columbia Pictures' "21 Jump Street" on April 23 - 24. Or you can also catch the regular screening on May 9. Finally, its also got a RATED R-13 rating so you might want to exercise caution in bringing along your pre-teens.