Review: 21 Jump Street

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21 Jump Street

Sometimes when you watch a movie that you end up loving, you can pinpoint the exact moment that you say to yourself, before the film is even done, "Yeah, I'm gonna like this." 21 Jump Street has a moment like this. It pokes fun at the idea of Hollywood being so unoriginal it has to churn out remakes by rehashing, and it's done so in such a flippant way that it couldn't have possibly be delivered by anyone other than Nick Offerman. This is the moment where you'll either check out of the film, or you'll be totally on board.

You won't have to buy into the concept so much as just appreciate the comedic stylings of Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill, and it may seem hard to believe but yes, Channing Tatum does indeed have some great comedic chops under his emotionless face.

Schmidt (Hill) and Jenko (Tatum) are two former high-school classmates who didn't run in the same circles back in high school. Fast forward a few years when they both join the police academy and realize they can help each out because of their different skill sets. When they eventually make their first arrest, they manage to spectacularly botch it and they get assigned to an undercover unit as a form of punishment. Their mission is to stop a new drug that is currently contained to one school from spreading and making it harder to eliminate. They're not supposed to drink or do drugs with the kids, but it's been established at this point that they're not very good cops, so what else would you expect?

That last statement is usually the sort of dismissive remark that will tell the viewer that what you're seeing onscreen isn't anything special. That couldn't be further from the truth. 21 Jump Street acknowledges the ridiculousness of the premise, and even the lameness of the resurrecting an extinct police program from the 80s. If what you're seeing onscreen angers you in any way, you were warned pretty early on by Nick Offerman.

Channing Tatum is easily the most fantastic part of the film. He's shown inklings of some decent comedic talent in The Dilemma and She's the Man, but here he really lets loose his comedy and it's great -- never misses or feels like it's stretching thin. Jonah Hill even plays a little more serious here and the role reversal between the two actors really works. Dave Franco manages to not be as obnoxious as he's so good at playing. The biggest piece that's missing is Nick Offerman, who is only in one scene, but it's such a great scene.

It's really a credit to the writer Michael Bacall to craft a script that is in actuality so smart when the events taking place onscreen seem so dumb. Dumb, but dumb in the most fun way possible. The only unbelievable part about the amazing script is that Bacall also wrote the abysmal Project X.

The directing team of Phil Lord and Chris Miller really know comedy -- among their collective filmography are movies and TV shows like Clone High, Scrubs and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Scenes that feel like they're going in places you've seen before somehow turn out different, jokes that are loudly telegraphed still manage to be incredibly funny, even when they're repeated.

21 Jump Street is everything you've seen before, yet it's smarter than everything you've seen before. Whatever your thoughts are on Hollywood churning out remakes, this is a movie that truly stands on its own and is worthy of a theatrical viewing.