21 Jump Street (2012

The Gist:

Diametrically-opposite-looking-yet-surprisingly-buddy-buddy police officers Jenko (Channing Tatum) and Schmidt (Jonah Hill) are branded too immature for regular police work but just immature enough to take part in the Jump Street programme. Their mission, should they choose to accept it (they didn’t really have a choice, to be honest) is to infiltrate a high school drug ring and smoke out a powerful new narcotic before it spreads across the country. Can the burgeoning bromance overcome the perils of drugs, gang violence, car chases and a repeat of high school? Well?! Can it?!

The Review:

It’s hard to tell how popular 21 Jump Street (the telly show, not this film) was when it was on way back in that champion of eras: the late 1980s. I mean, it was a Johnny Depp vehicle. He was popular once, wasn’t he? Anyway, this is an unashamed reboot of said Depp-mobile and makes pains to point this out. I’m sure there’s a better word to use than ‘pains’, because the knowing wink and smile with which 21 Jump Street points out its heritage and shameless existence gives it plenty of room to poke fun at the whole damn scene, whilst doing something rather refreshing with the whole mess. So what’s so damn refreshing, then? Well this film is the brain-baby of Christopher Miller and Phil Lord, a duo responsible for Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and who would go on to bring us The LEGO Movie, and as such contains that powerful element known as: the feels. It’s by no means the same kind of feels present in those other two films I just mentioned, but like all good cop movies this film lives and dies on the relationship between its two mismatched leads, and it goes for the bromantical jugular. Hill and Tatum have a preposterous level of chemistry between them, we’re talking Walter White levels of chemistry. To go into it more would be kind of to unstitch the comedy of the pairing, suffice to say that Hill is surprisingly endearing for someone who looks like a warped parsnip, and Tatum takes to comedy like a flatulent goose to a custard pudding: with hilarious, messy consequences. I can’t honestly say I’m a fan of either actor, but here they tip my prejudices over and expose them for the shoddily-made IKEA furniture they really are. My prejudices that is, not the actors. HOWEVER, he said in an imposing, nigh-on Brian Blessed manner, there’s not much else to 21 Jump Street. The jokes are great, the writing solid, the main performances are great, Ice Cube is always a hoot too, but everything else is just a bit of a wash. A damp wet tumble, if you will. The supporting cast are… er… unmemorable to say the best of them, which I know sounds harsh but I’ll be damned if I can recall them. I think there were some nerds. Something about stereotypes. That’s ultimately the major problem of 21 Jump Street; nothing is particularly new or unheard of. Roles get reversed, dick jokes are made, tropes are played on like a newly-built climbing frame at a primary school, but, y’know, as fresh and funny as it is at the time most of it just shoots out your head not long after the fact. I must must must reiterate, just as I mentioned at the start of this review-shaped word spaghetti, it’s a damnedly good bit of silly fun but it escapes your brain rather suddenly. Almost as if it needed somewhere else to be… hmm…  

The Verdict:

This film is a Daim bar. Do you remember Dime bars? The middle is a solid reliable treat surrounded by a soft non-descript chocolate. It’s a fine little bit of confectionery, but they never did set the world on fire, mainly due to their inability to initiate combustion. I guess that’s why they don’t make Daim bars any more. 21 Jump Street won’t reinvent anything, but it’s exactly the kind of comedy you’d be happy to pick up if you saw it suddenly being sold near the checkout at Sainsbury’s. Or Tesco, if you’re into that sort of thing.

Certificate: 15

Directors: Christopher Miller & Phil Lord

Starring:  Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum

Running time: 109 minutes

Release date:  9th July 2012