21 Jump Street Staff Review
21 Jump Street, a film that uses the same general premise as the 1987 TV series of the same name, police officers going undercover as high school students. But that would be about it--in fact the movie even pokes fun at itself in this respect with a joke about Hollywood not having any new ideas so they resurrected an old program from the ‘80s that involved undercover officers back to high school.
The movie stars Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill as Officers Jenko and Schmidt. Tatum is somewhat new to comedy, and Hill has come a long way from his Superbad days. The two have never worked together before, yet it's obvious they have great chemistry. This, coupled with a tight, fast-paced script and solid camera work, makes for a fun ride. Other standout cast members include Rob Riggle and Ice Cube. Keep your eye out for some interesting cameos by actors from the original TV series.
Directed by relative newbies Phil Lord and Chris Miller (the only other major motion picture they have directed is
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs--they even joked about this when introducing themselves at the SXSW premiere as the "two high school students who directed the film"). They did an excellent job of taking the general premise from the original television show and morphing it into something else. While the screenplay has been out there for a while, and in certain scenes it does show it's age, on the whole it works and flows rather well. While most of the recent Hollywood remakes come nowhere close to matching the intensity or quality of the original,
21 Jump Street goes in a totally different direction, and actually succeeds where others have failed.
Is this film going to be nominated for Best Picture? No. But it's a laugh a minute and well worth the price of admission.
--Michele Logenbach
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