21 Jump Street is straight up off the hook. The film is just fun. Far better than I had anticipated. Go in with no expectations and you are bound to have a good time.
21 Jump Street is based on the late 80’s early 90’s TV show of the same name. We follow Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum), two new police officers assigned to a revived undercover operation. Their assignment is to go undercover as brothers and high school students to bust a synthetic drug ring.
I am not sure what is going on in the motion picture advertising/promotion industry; but, whatever it is, it needs to stop. Do not get me wrong. This film was not promoted as poorly as another recent film, but I had zero interest in watching 21 Jump Street based on previews. But 21 Jump Street is far better than advertised.
21 Jump Street is able to move right to the line of absurdity without really crossing it. Too often parodies are way over the top. They slam your face in contrived jokes, leaving you assaulted and without a hint of laughter. TV-based remakes are often goofy. They lack the charm of the original and depend on nostalgia to draw in audiences. 21 Jump Street dodges both obstacles.
21 Jump Street tells a straight-forward story. Sticking to a storyline provides room for the film to build jokes that are relevant rather than a series of non sequiturs. A cohesive story is important in making a film engaging and keeping the audience’s attention.
The humor works because it is situational. We are never bombarded by any one type of joke, there is a good mix and it develops off of the storyline. Credit is due to the directing team of Phil Lord and Chris Miller and writer Michael Bacall (he developed the story with Jonah Hill). The humor is fresh.
Schmidt was a nerd in high school, and Jenko was cool. They develop into friends as they struggle through the police academy and as partners. We get more than just jokes about the cool kids versus the nerds. We get a good mix of the transition from nerd to cool and cool to nerd. We get some jokes about fitting in in a new role. There are layers and a richness to the humor.
21 Jump Street is also super self-aware. It is irreverent with purpose. There are more than just jokes related to the original show they cover a whole swath of pop culture from John Woo‘s love of doves to the ways cars explode in action films. But each joke is delivered with a reference to the source and not just thrown in. They poke fun at the source material and themselves. Ice Cube‘s diatribe about angry black cops is a particularly good example (commentary wrapped in humor).
The inter-generational jokes are pretty solid. We get hit with jokes sourced from the 80’s through the present. Plus, tons of good stuff directed at how quickly those generational shifts occur. Including the best lampoon of social casts in school since Clueless.
Jonah Hill returns to actually being funny after recent stumbling. His success is in part because he transitions, literally, out of his sad sack loser role into something a little more robust.
Channing Tatum may also have found his calling. This is by far his best performance. Namely because he is asked to do more than just stand around and look good (which he arguably is pretty good at). Forcing him to play a character confronted with the loss of his coolness amid a generational shift requires him to stretch his acting chops. The result is a performance that is both funny and more compelling than his ordinary fare. I hope this is a sign of better and more interesting roles and a continued improvement of his craft.
21 Jump Street is just fun. It sticks to a strong storyline and is peppered with self-referential and self-deprecating humor.
PARSI VERDICT: A layered and self-aware romp, worth jumping into.