- The 80s continue to live due to my
continued efforts
I fully admit I'm a kid of the 80's and
loved it, still do. They produced the best cartoons, some of the
best movies (later the year I'll be doing my best five movies) and
some great tv shows as well! With that out of the way, I'll admit
that I never saw the original 21 Jump Street. So if the movie was
trying to be like the show, I'll never know. I do know that this
movie is supposed to be a continuation of the beloved (?) TV series
so that might be something to catch the eye of rabid Depp and DeLuise
fans.
I haven't really enjoyed either of the
main actors' (Hill and Tatum) acting chops in the past. For starters,
I didn't think that Jonah Hill was 'best supporting actor'
material in Moneyball. As for Channing Tatum, well, I've only seen
him in Haywire (read my review here) so that was not really a great
introduction to him!
The movie starts out in high school.
There are some quick scenes with a jock and a nerd, then the setting
jumps seven years and it's the same two characters testing to be
police officers. A quick little montage of training and then they
ruin their chances of being great cops and get sent to 21 Jump
Street. 21 Jump Street is a misfits project started in the 80s
(oooo, I see what you did there movie!) where young-looking cops are
sent in to infiltrate high schools in order to stop youth crime. I
really didn't mind any of this part of the plot, it was just two
stupid cops being stupid. It sort of reminded me of Hot Fuzz or Kopps
in a way but much more foolish and not in the same calibre.
When the Schmidt and Jenko (Hill and Tatum respectively) start getting integrated
into the high school a lame teenage love story with hijinxs starts up
(Hill and Larson characters) and I felt that I really wasn't the
target audience for that. I know that the characters in the movie
are supposed to be rejects, but they seem to ignore the fact that the
high school students are under-aged. Captain Dickson (played by Ice Cube) of the 21 Jump Street team even warns them not to get involved (though he doesn't
specifically point out that these students are under 21, so don't do
that). But, of course, when Ice Cube says it, you all know what is
going to happen. The scenes are a bit awkward to watch and the youth
angst is there, which I wish hadn't been incorporated into these
supposedly 25+ year-old police officers, who should know better.
 |
| High school! |
The script does have its finer points.
There are quite a few throwbacks to the show and even someone who
didn't watch the show can at least point them out! There are some
clever political insults in the script (which the audience may or may
not have not picked up on), and the script has some solid lines but
with a fierce inconsistency that left me unsatisfied.
The ending of the movie was way out in
left field. There was an awkward jump in the seriousness of the plot
with the addition of numerous gun sequences but overall it managed to
keep a sort of humour about it all. It's a wobbly story that has high
and low points but in the end it neither under or overwhelmed me.
I give it a 5/10
PS: Knowing that Brie Larson is legal,
I'd say go for it Jonah!
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