21 Jump Street

Three quarters of the way into 21 Jump Street the comedy gets so bad that it should be renamed 21 Dump Street. The film that begins with some smart and really funny humour falls apart as the script becomes littered with gags that you feel would even make Seth Rogen blush.The film begins with Schmidt (Jonah Hill – The Sitter, Moneyball) and Jenko (Channing Tatum – The Vow, Haywire) in high school. Jenko is the popular jock while Schmidt is the ignored loser.
Then at Police Academy the two become friends but find that both are failures at being cops in their own ways. After a massive stuff up during an arrest they are both shifted to a squad run by Captain Dickson (Ice Cube – Rampart, Lottery Ticket), a secret squad housed at 21 Jump Street.
The pair are soon sent into a High School to explore the sale of a drug that has recently been linked to the death of a young boy. This time around Jenko finds that he doesn’t fit into the school while Schmidt is quickly accepted into the ‘cool group’ that consists of Molly (Brie Larson – Rampart, The Trouble With Bliss), Eric (Dave Franco – Bad Meat, Fright Night) and their friends.
Early on the humour in 21 Jump Street works exceptionally well. Gags that make fun of the fact that the film is a re-hash are guaranteed to raise a smile amongst even serious film goers while the explanations of clichéd characters like Captain Dickson show that Jonah Hill and fellow screenwriter Michael Bacall (Project X, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World) had some idea where they wanted the script to go… despite the fact that hardened fans of the TV show will tell you that it was a drama.
But then the film falls away into a horrible mess. The comedy ceases being intelligent and turns dangerously juvenile and to top it all off the storyline and action simply becomes completely unbelievable… a shame when you realize the film was on track early.
On the plus side Channing Tatum really steps up in this film and he can hold his head high as he holds his own in the comedy stakes despite the fact he is acting alongside Jonah Hill – one of the most talented comedic actors of the new generation. It is also good to see that Johnny Depp (The Rum Diary, Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides) made a cameo… and in a role that you really have to look out for to spot early on.
Directors, Phil Lord and and Chris Miller (Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, TV’S Clone High) may want to lay low for a while because there will be some angry 21 Jump Street TV show fans looking for blood. Ultimately this is a film that could have been a great comedy but is let down by screenwriters that don’t know how to finish off a film properly.
Year: 2012
Director: Chris Miller, Phil Lord
Stars: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Brie Larson, Dave Franco, Ice Cube, Johnny Depp
Classification: MA15+
Runtime: 109 mins
Rating: ![]()
Dave Griffiths








