21 Jump Street (2012)
*** (out of 4)
Reboot of the 80s TV series features Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum playing cops who go undercover in high school to try and discover who's passing around a new drug that has already killed one kid. When there the once dork Hill finds himself popular while the once popular Tatum finds himself with the losers as they try to track the drugs. I will admit that I never watched the original series so I'm not even going to try to compare them but I did find this movie to be hilarious at times and quite often very clever in its attempt to show some homages as well as spoofs. I think the film works so well because the two leads actors are simply so good in their roles. It also doesn't hurt that the two of them can work so well together and can play off one another and really take a joke and run with it. There are some hilarious bits here including a few running scenes with a motorcycle gang, which are just hilarious. Once again it's scenes like these where the screenplay really shows how clever it is because you expect certain things to happen yet they don't and the film can't wink at you for it. I thought the character development was also pretty good for this type of film as both cops really go through some ups and downs and it doesn't add up to melodrama but instead some nice growth for them. Of course, people aren't coming here for drama and thankfully this is left to just a few scenes. The rest of the film is 100% comedy and I'd say for the most part the jokes work. We get some silly laughs, some gross-out humor and just about every other type of humor you can think of. The screenplay goes all out in regards to how it gets the laughs as it really doesn't care how to do it as long as they come. I'd say that a good 80% of the jokes work very well and those that don't still aren't too bad. The one negative thing is that the film goes on way too long as we start to get dragged down in a few too many scenes that are just pushing away the obvious ending. With that said, the movie works extremely well thanks to the two leads but the cameo also works to perfection.
*** (out of 4)
Reboot of the 80s TV series features Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum playing cops who go undercover in high school to try and discover who's passing around a new drug that has already killed one kid. When there the once dork Hill finds himself popular while the once popular Tatum finds himself with the losers as they try to track the drugs. I will admit that I never watched the original series so I'm not even going to try to compare them but I did find this movie to be hilarious at times and quite often very clever in its attempt to show some homages as well as spoofs. I think the film works so well because the two leads actors are simply so good in their roles. It also doesn't hurt that the two of them can work so well together and can play off one another and really take a joke and run with it. There are some hilarious bits here including a few running scenes with a motorcycle gang, which are just hilarious. Once again it's scenes like these where the screenplay really shows how clever it is because you expect certain things to happen yet they don't and the film can't wink at you for it. I thought the character development was also pretty good for this type of film as both cops really go through some ups and downs and it doesn't add up to melodrama but instead some nice growth for them. Of course, people aren't coming here for drama and thankfully this is left to just a few scenes. The rest of the film is 100% comedy and I'd say for the most part the jokes work. We get some silly laughs, some gross-out humor and just about every other type of humor you can think of. The screenplay goes all out in regards to how it gets the laughs as it really doesn't care how to do it as long as they come. I'd say that a good 80% of the jokes work very well and those that don't still aren't too bad. The one negative thing is that the film goes on way too long as we start to get dragged down in a few too many scenes that are just pushing away the obvious ending. With that said, the movie works extremely well thanks to the two leads but the cameo also works to perfection.
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