21 Jump Street starts with two high-school students, Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum). Schmidt is a total nerd who can't get a date for the prom, and Jenko is a popular "cool guy" who is aloud to go to prom because of his grades. Years later, they're both trying to become cops. Schmidt is good at the tests, and Jenko is good at the fighting. They decide to become friends and work as a team. Finally they are ready to be cops, or as they call it ready for "a lifetime of being bad-asses." However, that's not really true, because they ride bikes through the park trying to find criminals (a kid feeding the geese when a sign clearly says, "Do not feed the geese.") Finally, they find a group of motorcyclists doing drugs, and they get their first bust. But sadly, the have to let the bad guys go because they forgot to read him his Miranda Rights. They are then officially relocated to 21 Jump Street, where cops go undercover as high-school students. Their mission is to find the supplier of a new drug that is popular at the high-school. However, times have changed since when they were in high-school, so instead, Schmidt is now popular and Jenko is the nerd. Schmidt forgets that he's undercover and pays more attention to his friendship with Eric (Dave Franco), a drug-dealer, and his relationship with Molly (Brie Larson).
21 Jump Street is hilarious. The jokes are clever, the timing is perfect, and the casting was just right. The only person it could've done without was Chaning Tatum, who was funny, but not that great. Jonah Hill was hilarious (and perfect for the part). The little characters and little jokes in it are great. My favorite was Ice Cube, who played Captain Dickson, their boss once they get to Jump Street. He makes hilarious one-liners. I also thought Rob Riggle was hilarious as the gym teacher, who made funny jokes like "You've got quite the muscle tone. When did you go through puberty, like, seven?" and more. 21 Jump Street is the best of the action-comedy genre, and (thank god0 it's the only one that doesn't lose the comedy for the action in the end. To See: That is the answer.
Rather than a re-hash of the original, though, this is a re-imagining by Hill, who ... set it in the present with appropriate nods to the original and a whole lot of silliness. Nostalgia has rarely been better served and Tatum hasn't been better. Great jobs by everybody involved which sets the bar pretty high-up this year for comedies. Good review Theo.
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