TME MOVIE REVIEW: 21 Jump Street
Release Date: March 16th, 2012
Studio: MGM
Director: Phil Lord, Chris Miller
Screenwriter: Michael Bascall, Jonah Hill, Patrick Hasburgh, Stephen J. Cannel
Starring: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Brie Larson, Dave Franco, Ice Cube
Genre: Action, Comedy
Rating: R
Have you had the chance to attend your local movie theatre and watched the remake of “21 Jump Street”, you know what? I understand where you’re coming from and I agree. Why should I invest any more time in pointless remakes that not just change everything that made us fall in love with the original but murder the premise in the process. Let me tell you that in this particular instance, we were wrong; way wrong.
The movie was based on a late-80s 20th Century Fox series, which focused on a squad of youthful-looking undercover police officers investigating crimes in high schools, colleges, and other teenage venues. The series jump started Johnny Depp’s career and made him into a teenage heartthrob, garnering international recognition.
I went to see this movie recently, a week after it was released, and was pleasantly surprised by what I found. Firstly I would like to point out that the filmmakers responsible for this adaptation really took chances, and it all came to fruition. The original series was a drama and had two fairly good-looking gentlemen in the main roles; this comedic movie hired a good-looking guy and a slimmed down, former, chubby actor with a string of movie hits. From the moment I head about the development of this movie I felt reserved; reserved to see what this new generation of unoriginal re-makes and what I first believed to be bad casting.
I’m beginning to see a pattern with some of my posts, a pattern in which my first impressions of a certain film are usually wrong. I was pleasantly surprised by 21 Jump Street, it delivered all it promised and much more. In this movie we find Schmidt (Hill) and Jenko (Tatum) in highschool in the nerd and stereotypical jock roles in their teen years. Jenko tries asking out a girl and gets denied while Jenko makes fun of his attempt and maintains a deplorable GPA. Years later they meet again during the police academy where Jenko, realizing that Schmidt is really smart and can aid him to pass the theoretical part of the academy and help him with the physical part, decides to make an alliance. The duo is later transferred to 21 Jump Street’s undercover work when they fail in making an arrest in the park where they were initially assigned.
The movie contains an array of celebrity cameos from some of your favorite TV shows (The Office, Parks and Recreation, New Girl) and also serves a hot dish of topical references from both the 90s and today. The movie as a whole serves its cleverness to satirize the difference of the high school life we remember from the 90s and how it has been sissy-ed out in recent years.
The movie as a whole served up different purposes, for one it followed the story of two undercover cops assigned to a high school to find the supplier and sellers of a new drug. The part that we did not expect to find was the change in the characters when their worlds are turned around in opposite directions from when they first attended high school. Channing Tatum’s character once was a popular jock in the 90s scene while Jonah Hill could not surpass his awkwardness to avoid constant humiliation; now they are faced with a world in which feelings are valued more than looks and the alpha nature of the jocks. Jonah Hill, who was once an unpopular outcast in his teens, has become the popular kid and begins to treat his new best friend Tatum the was he was once treated by Tatum himself. I felt bad for the guy, I felt his pain and cringed with Hill’s portrayal of Schmidt because, well we gotta be honest and we may have reacted the same way in his situation.
Tatum’s performance was hilarious, proof to which we can find in movies like She’s the Man with Amanda Bynes, and Hill shows his usual fun self. Audiences and critics alike have praised this movie, which has done fairly good in box office results racking up a total of $71.1 million dollars only having been 2 weeks in theatres. More than marketing, which there was enough, the movie has succeeded by word of mouth and by surprising the viewers who, like me, expect not as much from the movie than its results. See what all the fuss is about, I have a feeling that you will enjoy this potential date flick; don’t forget to bring me a date too.
P.S: Keep an eye out for special cameo from two important figures of the original TV series…wouldn’t want you to accidentally miss them.
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