21 Jump Street Review

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21 Jump Street Review
By Darrin Jones / March 17

Ingredients: If you liked the action of Taxi, the parody comedy of Showtime, and characters of Cop Out, you will like this movie. 

Well I hate to disappoint all you Blender fans out there that were expecting my scheduled review of Jeff, Who Lives at Home but I was unable to see that movie so instead I had to review 21 Jump Street. Yes, fate had conspired to force me to watch 21 Jump Street; so I didn’t have much faith in this film to begin with. But, being the professional I am, I’m going to put on my game face and jump right into the plot. We start with a young Schmidt (as played by Jonah Hill) nerding it up in high school while being mocked by cool guy and bully, Jenko (Channing Tatum). The movie then jumps ahead to Schmidt and Jenko applying to be police officers and becoming friends to help each-other earn their badges. After a failed arrest attempt, the two are put undercover on a special task force designed to crack down on narcotics in high schools. Schmidt is suppose to be undercover as a science nerd to figure out who is supplying a new drug to the students and Jenko is suppose to be the cool guy that gets in with the dealers. Of course Jenko mixes up their cover stories and whackiness ensues as the two must relive high school again but in radically different roles. Can they still stay partners, uncover the devious drug plot and make it to their classes on time?

21 Jump Street is a fairly standard cop movie parody. There are some very hilarious jabs at the old action movie cliches; such as, a few montage shots of explosive items during a car chase where everyone expects a huge explosion that doesn’t happen or  someone saying “I would take a bullet for you” cementing that it’s going to happen at some point. Unfortunately, all the funny is horribly dragged out and nearly every joke is beaten to a pulp. And some of the gags turn extremely juvenile. The plot is so hammy and overdone. Two friends are put in a situation where their roles are reversed and one of them can’t handle it so their friendship nearly ends but it all works out fine. Even if it is a corny plot, it doesn’t make it a bad movie.

What does make it a bad movie is how much useless padding there is in it. Anything humorous is stretched out way too long and the action scenes actually slow the movie down and really detract from the story. There were some great call backs to the original 21 Jump Street tv show but there’s a huge disconnect there. This film is really geared towards a younger audience but too young to really appreciate the call backs to the tv show. And I really doubt anyone that was a real fan of the 21 Jump Street show will be watching this film. It’s not made for them and it’s really damn obvious. How do you know if this movie isn’t for you? Well just ask yourself, if you saw a man trying to pick up his own detached penis with his mouth, would you chuckle? Personally, I did not share in the crowd’s laughter.