Lately, I feel like there hasn’t been really good witty or humorous entertainment flying around. Sure, Community started up again and Sherlock’s a great time killer; but I feel like there hasn’t been anything up to par with Hot Fuzz, Shawn of the Dead or Date Night (all excellent movies which I highly recommend).
So when I went to see 21 Jump Street, I was excited. I’ve been reading and this movie was actually based on the 1987-1991 TV show with the same name! Neat, huh? Though, I had no idea what to expect when entering the theatre; I haven’t seen any of the trailers and all I heard from my friend was that two cops disguise themselves at a high school to bust some drug dealers.
And that’s essentially it, but there’s so much more than that! In high school we have Jenko (Channing Tatum), a stereotypical football player with no brains and Schmidt (Jonah Hill), a smart guy who is a Slim Shady wanna-bee, i.e. a dork. They eventually end up at the same Police Academy and decide to befriend each other whilst helping them pass all the aspects of being a policeman. After failing to arrest a gang of biker druggies, they were sent to disguise as high school kids to bring down a synthetic drug ring.
When Jenko mixes up his fake identity with Schmidt, the two have to fake their way into passing high school. Jenko attempts to pass AP Chemistry (as he pronounces “app”) and Schmidt has to be the best Peter Pan in a play to impress Molly, a girl he develops feelings for. Although the plot may seem cheesy, there are a lot of awesome things to this movie.
The Good
The wit and comedy used in this movie is fantastic. Although there are lot of profanity and crudeness, I laughed a bunch and nearly fell over my seat. I think the other audience members were annoyed of my laugh by the end. But that’s how great the humor is in this movie! For example, the cool kids end up being the environmentalists and Jenko says “Being cool these days just takes being tolerant and eco-friendly. I blame Glee.” Funny, huh?
You’d expect Tatum to be in a romantic movie, but he’s an excellent actor in this comedy/action. Hill, as usual, is awkward, but hilarious. They make a lot of references which aren’t too obvious or lame, so the writers did a superb job (they also did Scott Pilgrim and Inglorious Basterds).
The Bad
With a rating of 14A, I found this movie to have content that a 14-year-old shouldn’t see or hear. A lot of entertainment has profanity these days, but I think that this movie might be a bit too crude for the young audience members. Some content is a bit offensive as well, but a lot of comedy movies these days have such material. For that, I’m a bit iffy for bringing a tween into this movie; it’s definitely appropriate for older people. Plus, the jokes cater towards the older audience members.
Verdict
If you want a good humorous film and you’re prepared for crude language yet witty jokes, this is your film!
Plot – 7.5/10
Characters – 8/10
Visuals – 8/10
Music – 8/10
Total – 8/10
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