21 Jump Street

In preparation for the sequel coming out this weekend, I watched this with my sister and my father who had never seen it. He loved it.

21 Jump Street gets its origins from a TV show of the same name. Believe it or not it was actually the show that really got Johnny Depp's career off the ground.

The show was a Crime Drama procedural focused on a group of detectives who have youthful features. They were assigned to different schools and had to deal with different issues facing high schools at the time like drug use, homophobia, bullying, etc.

I'm not going to tell you the show was a complete hit because I didn't watch it. The only reason I know about it is because Johnny Depp was in it and they made this film adaptation a couple years back.

21 Jump Street is the story of Morton Schmidt (played by Jonah Hill) and Greg Jenko (played by Channing Tatum). They are two young men who go to high school together but grew up in different circles. Jenko was a jock while Schmidt was a little bit of a nerd.

They follow those stereotypes and being in school at that time, that corresponded with their popularity in school. Jenko was a popular kid and Schmidt wasn't.

Well they both graduate and a couple years later join the Police and have big dreams about making it big as police officers. They become good friends on account that Schmidt is smart and Jenko is strong. The two work off each other's skills and help each other succeed.

But when they finally get on duty its really not what they expected. When an attempted bust goes wrong, the two of them are reassigned due to their youthful looks. And they get assigned to 21 Jump Street, an undercover program rehashed from the 80s because the guys making this stuff couldn't think of anything original. (Actual line from the movie)

This program is headed up by Ice-Cube, the stereotypical angry black captain. He has a name but you're just going to call him Ice-Cube so there's not really a point to saying his actual name.

They are assigned to a school where a new Synthetic drug is on the market. Here's what the drug does.

So Schmidt and Jenko have to go undercover with new names and identities into high school to find out who this drug is being dealt by and who is supplying it.

On face value, these two don't really seem like they would ever get along. But one way or another Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill just simply rock it together.

The relationship between the two is incredibly funny and the play off each other so well.

In the ways one fails, the other one just succeeds so well. And the great part about it is that when they get to high school, while you're meant to believe that its going to be similar to when they went to highschool, the truth is that the roles are switched. The trends and popular things are totally different than they were when they were in highschool.

Dave Franco plays a straight and narrow kid almost ready to go off to Berkley. He's into the environment and actually caring about school. But he's also a drug dealer.

The stereotypes played out in today's schools are so very different than they were a decade ago and its great how the movie plays those stereotypes.

Brie Larson plays a theatre girl who is also in the popular kids. Unfortunately, they don't play up the other stereotypes of kids in this generation quite enough. I think I would have wanted to see more theatre stereotypes and other funny ones. Basically all they do is do a look over the other groups and Jenko cannot point out which click is which because they've changed since they went to school.

The movie is funny. And while a lot of it stupid humor, a lot of it is really original and really fresh humor.

Again its a matter of what you prefer when you watch something but I'm so sick of doing that disclaimer when I review comedy movies.

The good thing about this movie is that it is a very funny premise. Whether you like the humor in the movie is really up to you, but you have to admit that the premise is clever and a great way to adapt the television show.

I think they knew there was no way they could reboot a series and take it seriously, or at least as seriously as they did in the 80s. It was a different time back then but even then I'd have to imagine it was silly.

This is a perfect way to readapt some source material and make it the writer's and director's own. It's not like it hasn't been done before, I just can't think of anything that has been done this well before. I think this movie is well deserving of a sequel and I am looking forward to that. Hopefully I'll be going to see that this weekend. Of course I will give you a review as soon as I am able to type one out.

But the movie is just fun. Check it out. Again, the humor is really dependent on your style but I imagine you'll get a couple laughs out of it if not holding your sides in laughter.

That's my review of 21 JumpStreet. Have you seen it? Are you excited for the sequel this weekend? Comment and discuss below!

I'll leave you with this. In the spirit of the sequel coming out, here is the trailer to the movie. I was trying to find something else but the trailer is too funny not to put up. Enjoy!