Let’s get this out of the way: this is not a good movie.
It is, however, freakin’ hilarious.
I was in a terrible mood yesterday when we went to the movies — to the point where Darin wasn’t even trying to make conversation with me, I was so monosyllabic — and by the end of 21 Jump Street I was wiping tears from my eyes. (During the previews, I chuckled once, softly, during Men In Black 3 when Josh Brolin evoked Tommy Lee Jones perfectly, and the rest of the time I was like: Wow, what is a bigger waste of time — me trying to cheer up, or these awful, awful, awful looking movies?) I couldn’t believe the good reviews this movie got before I saw it, and now I’m like, Yeah, okay.
Channing Tatum is the good-looking, stupid cop who used to pick on nerdy, brainy Jonah Hill in high school. They both go to the Police Academy, where they help one another through. On their first assignment (as bike cops,in the park), they blow it so badly that Nick Offerman assigns them to undercover work at the high school. “You’re going to 37 Jump Street….Wait, that doesn’t sound right.”
They’re supposed to break up a drug ring at the high school, and they discover that high school has totally changed since they were there, 7 years ago: now everyone two-straps their backpacks, instead of only using one. The smart kids are now the cool kids! Our cops get assigned to the wrong classes! They throw wild parties! They blow up half the city with quite possibly the worst police work in history…but apparently no one notices!
Lots of drug humor. Unbelievably bad language — I think they went out of their way to see how much cursing they could get into this thing. Amazingly, no nudity. Every cliché about bad cop shows and cops working undercover and high school worked in, repeatedly. I had no idea who Channing Tatum was before this but I really liked him: he was hilarious.
We had a really good time at this.
The comedies they advertised before the movie though: ohmygod, they look awful. Why is anyone still hiring Adam Sandler?