Review of 21 Jump Street (2012) by Nelson B — 01 Mar 2016

Twenty-five years since its small screen debt, 21 Jump Street and is back. Producer/Actor Jonah Hill has remade the teen-cop "old program from the eighties" that explored adolescent issues and juvenile crime with admirable earnestness, proving once again that "The guys upstairs have no imagination anymore, so they just recycle old shit and try and pass it off as something new" or has he?

Unlike the studio cannibals who trawl the archives for victims, Hill's affection for the original series is self-evident. Armed with smug cynicism and amusing self-awareness, this threadbare juvenile comedy shtick is fueled by an endless supply of crass expletives and genital references. Utilizing only the base premise of original concept to produce an offering in no way resembles a remake. A comedy not a drama, this movie is what it is and not what it's named after.

Rookie cops Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko ( Channing Tatum) are the police departments newest line of defense and biggest headache. Fumbling their first arrest by failing to deliver a tangible version of Miranda rights, the deflated duo are reassigned to recently resurrected undercover unit known only as 21 Jump Street.

Usually a hindrance on the Job, the duos youthful looks finally become an advantage as their new aggressive Captain Dickson (Ice Cube) barks orders that they are to trade in their badges for backpacks and re-join the student body. A new designer party drug is killing teens and is about to go viral to the city's youth crime syndicates; they must identify the distributor and infiltrate his team in aid of flushing out the supplier.

While handsome former-jock Jenko is ecstatic about the idea of reliving his glory day, the overweight and nerdy Schmidt is petrified to return to the place where he endured four agonizing years of ridicule and torture, ironically at the hands of his new partner and best friend.

Life at high school though has evolved; where picking on people who tried and a winning sports event previous ensured your coolness, now intelligence, tolerance and social awareness is the winning ticket. When their fake identies are switched, the shy mathematical whiz is sent to drama class while the athletic dumbbell pumper finds himself in advanced chemistry. Forced to walk in each other's high school shoes, futilely they try to correct their own high school issues whilst not showing they are in-fact narcs and bringing down the bag guys, not too much to ask really form a pair of perpetrual screw-ups.

Obligatory elements all present; a stoner house party, a frantic highway chase (or two), shot-em-up gunfights, a record breaking number of penis jokes, cutting modern TV references, blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameos, and two knucklehead leads who always find the error of their ways, this really is little more than a slap-dash buddy movie with far-too-old leads and barrage of self-deprecating references.

Hill (28 ) manages to make a tangible character out of the insecure overweight but good hearted Schmidt, Tatum (31) sits well as the hunky but slow-witted Jenko, Franco's (25) distinctive comedic talent gives credence to his eco-friendly cool- clean-cut vegan Eric and Larson escapes the realm of cheesy as the likeable love interest Molly, But sadly self-declared angry black man in charge Ice Cube's overheated hard-ass characterization who explodes with a barrage of miss-timed R-rated orders doesn't hit any funny bones.

Besides the actors were meant to see, there are a handful of priceless cameos best discovered for yourself. If you are a fan of the series, keep your eyes and ears open and see how many direct references you can find. Jenko being the name of the original series one captain, the undercover alias from an episode where they are brothers named McQuaid, HT Iokes appearances but not as a cameo. The list goes on...

The verdict: Not quite funny enough, quick enough or inventive enough; going back to school is often easier said than done and so is capturing the magic of a loved cult classic.

Published: The Queanbeyan Age.

Date of Publication: 23/03/2012.