21 Jump Street

Grade: B

I honestly went into Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s 21 Jump Street expecting not to like it. I’m not entirely sure why either. I like Jonah Hill. I don’t like Channing Tatum but I figured he shouldn’t have a whole lot of trouble playing a jock-y cop in a light comedy. It was getting good reviews and people whose opinions I trust really seemed to like it. I’m not big on remakes but this one actually made some sense. All signs point to me probably liking it, but for some reason I was still skeptical. That reason is I’m a cynic. It’s as simple as that. I can’t help but be cautious of something like this but if you leave this movie and didn’t at least laugh a ton you are more than just a cynic, you don’t have a sense of humor and are probably a jerk that nobody likes. Seriously though, this movie is funny.

I could wax poetic about how it perfectly walks the line between too self-aware and just aware enough or how it avoided falling into the biggest problem with most remakes and nostalgia passion projects of just being the exact same thing and forgetting to be an enjoyable movie on its own, but that would be a waste of everyone’s time because it’s just simply funny and that trumps all.

There isn’t a real reason to go into the plot as I’m sure you all know it but for the sake of framing the review and making it easier on me I will do it. Jonah Hill (who lost a bunch of weight for this role and it actually doesn’t distract you as much as you think it would) plays Schmidt, a guy who was smart in high school but never got any girls. Channing Tatum plays Jenko, a guy who was not very smart in high school but was cool, had long flowing hair, was great at sports, and got all the girls. You may think I’m oversimplifying this as I like to do but this is almost literally how the movie introduces the characters, and it was a nice touch. The writers knew what this movie is and didn’t waste any time trying to be subtle about setting up the characters. It’s as if they said “you and I both know who they are, so what is the point of wasting time that could be spent on funny bits with setting them up?” They even make some nice mid-aughts jokes in the process as we get to see Jonah Hill dressed as your typical jnco jeans, white t, ball bearing necklace wearing, and bleach blonde haired Eminem fan (I will never stop laughing at that look, it was right up there with every fashionable thing from the 80’s in terms of absolutely absurd fashion trends).

They then go through police academy training where they find each can help the other and become best friends. Next we see them as security guards trying to arrest some drug dealers way above their heads. Things of course go awry and they end up on their last legs at Jump Street where their Captain (played by Ice Cube who while a funny character could have probably been funnier with a better actor) assigns them to a local high school to try and stop the spreading of a new drug. Once they get to the high school they find out that things aren’t how they used to be. The cool kids aren’t the big jocks anymore. Instead they are vegan and like studying and some of them are homosexual and they drive biodiesel cars. Everything they knew before is flipped on its head and through a mistake by Jenko, Schmidt becomes a part of the cool kids and Jenko becomes one of the nerds.

The nerds are played by a bunch of relatively unknowns and outside of their nerdy wisdom they don’t really play a big part. The cool kids though play a much more prominent role. The head cool kid is played by Dave Franco (James’ brother) and anyone who has seen Scrubs: Med School knows that he is more than capable of playing an entitled douche. In fact he is starting to corner the douche market and I for one welcome it. He plays smarmy and self-involved better than any other actor his age right now. The love interest and head girl of the group is played by Brie Larson who is also playing in her wheelhouse as the too cool for anything, yet totally still wants to do everything Molly.

There is also an impressive tertiary cast consisting of the always appropriately over the top Rob Riggle playing the track coach, Chris Parnell perfectly cast as the very odd acting teacher, Ellie Kemper does a great job as Jenko’s science teacher who is equal parts crazy/confused by her attraction to Jenko, and even Nick Offerman shows up for a few minutes because everything is better with Ron Swanson.

The rest of the movie plays out how you would expect but that’s really not the point. Again, the point is that it is really funny. My favorite line of the whole movie was Channing Tatum yelling “Fuck science!” then walking out of his class while supposedly answering a question in class. That’s the great thing about this movie. Fuck science is a funny phrase in and of itself but add a funny context and it’s hilarious. I won’t say too much so I don’t ruin the joke, but that is this movies’ real strength. Sometimes a comedy will have funny lines but not much of a setup. It’s just funny line after funny line. Some movies have funny premises but not much in terms of actual jokes to help those premises. A good comedy has both and 21 Jump Street does.

It also helps that everyone in the cast (besides maybe Ice Cube) was up to the task of telling the jokes. I mean specifically Channing Tatum. Like I said earlier I don’t think very much of him as an actor, but this movie showed that he definitely has some comedic chops. Watching him go blow for blow with all the comedic talent in this movie was very impressive. He even had some hilarious physical bits, like when he was messing with Schmidt while he talks on the phone to Molly. He brought it better then I even thought he had in him.

So this is where I should summarize, but I feel like I already have. 21 Jump Street was really funny and if you enjoy funny things you should watch it. If you don’t enjoy funny things I don’t know what to tell you. Maybe you should go watch something serious again. This was a really lazy review.