Film Review: 21 Jump Street

Director: Phil Lord and Chris Miller

The film was based around the idea for the 1980's TV show of the same name which starred Johnny Depp and was co-written by Jonah Hill himself. Already there have been discussions surrounding a sequel with a test script already being produced which must have been after seeing the initial reviews, which so far have been generally favourable.

Morton Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Greg Jenko (Channing Tatum)

Morton Schmidt (Jonah Hill) was the stereotypical geek in high school and was bullied by jock Greg Jenko (Channing Tatum) but the two end up becoming friends during police academy. They end up working park patrol but a failure to read a suspects Miranda rights properly means they are sent down to 21 Jump Street to work under the angry Captain Dickson (Ice Cube doing what he does best, shouting at people). They are sent to infiltrate a drugs ring in a high school but find that high school has changed quite a lot since they were there.

For the most part the movie pokes fun at the usual stereotypes within cop movies and high school movies, very different from the original TV series which was actually a serious programme based around cops going undercover in high schools. The film seems to fluctuate between quite clever jokes and needlessly foul mouthed crude jokes, possibly trying to interest as many people as possible. My opinion on the film changed quite dramatically as I was laughing at certain jokes then within seconds was disappointed by another.

Schmidt and Jenko receive a trademark bollocking from Captain Dickson (Ice Cube)

Channing Tatum is a surprise package in the film compared to being terrible in everything else he has done but is actually just about watchable in this, he still lacks the ability to deliver comedy in the same way as Jonah Hill does. Although Hill isn't perfect here either as he seems to always want to play Seth in Superbad again, Ice Cube plays exactly the sort of role you would expect him to but to be fair is very good at it and certainly lifts the movie in a comedic sense.

2/4 Doesnt take itself seriously but some are just too obvious and crude.