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21 Jump Street
(directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, 2012)
I wish 21 Jump Street had made me laugh more, although I wasn't completely laughless, and sometimes I laughed unexpectedly, even for a prolonged, but short length. That's the kind of comedies I love. On a small-medium-large scale of movies that make me laugh a lot, 21 Jump Street is definitely a medium. A medium french fry. However, the crowd in the movie theatre laughed quite a lot and seemed to be having a good time. On a plus side, though, the humor in this movie is rather raunchy and strange and unique AND to top it off, 21 Jump Street, while initially appearing like it's going to be slow and boring at first, catches you and becomes completely engaging and even classic.
I have never seen the TV show, 21 Jump Street, but I have a feeling this isn't a bad movie adaptation. It makes me interested in seeing the TV show now and I would love to see a sequel to this movie. I hope they make one that's even better than the first. There already appears to be a setup for the next one. In this movie, Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum play two people from different high school cliques (circa 2005) who, in 2012, meet up again when they join the police force. They become friends because Jonah Hill's character is smart and can help Channing with tests and such. Then they end up working together - on bicycles. After they bust some redneck thugs with drugs in the park, but fail to read them their Miranda Rights, they are assigned to a secret location - a church - which is 21 Jump Street. There they meet Ice Cube playing a hilarious and thoroughly wonderful, badass police captain, who gives them their new mission - to go undercover as high school students and stop a new and dangerous drug from virally being passed around to other schools.
Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum have good chemistry. I have to say, though, that I prefer Jonah Hill over Channing Tatum, which might seem odd. Not only has he lost some weight and looks better than ever here, he is a far more amusing and talented actor than Channing Tatum. Channing was good for being the solid meat and Sylvester Stallonish force of the team, however, his character gets put to work with really horrible, unnecessary minor characters -- dweeby school geeks who help him with some kind of phone-spying plot that never pans out to be anything interesting or useful -- and Jonah Hill ends up with the cool kids, who are more developed in the story and more interesting. Channing's character doesn't have much life, while Jonah's is bursting with life -- we even get to meet his parents, but we learn nothing about Channing's family. If I was him, I'd demand a better role in the next film, though hopefully they won't cut back on Jonah's as well.
My biggest gripe about this movie, though, was that it was extremely fast paced with many short scenes. It was hard to focus. At 1:30 in the morning, I was already sleepy and I seriously thought I might fall asleep during the first thirty minutes of the film. Things would happen and I just wasn't alert enough to pick up on what happened -- I blame the movie for this, I really do. It has a very erratic style. It's also one of those movies where scenes happen and you think the scene will serve at least some kind of purpose by ending on a funny note, but it doesn't happen and it just falls flat. It's like endlessly slurping from a straw and never stopping to rest and savor what you intake. The movie also has a very cool, modern, 2012-ish feel to it, which is good - I want movies to keep up with the times - but I wish it could have breathed more and maybe tried not to always be too cute. One annoying thing I hated about 21 Jump Street was its overuse of flashy words suddenly appearing on the screen. For example, during a scene where someone is doing drugs, every time the person experienced a new stage of effects that the drug causes, a screen would appearing exclaiming something like, "PHASE ONE: THE GIGGS." This kind of thing happened a lot, even when they weren't doing drugs. That's not to say that it happens all the time, but it was more than I cared for.
All in all, though, I thought 21 Jump Street was way better than average and definitely one of the best things Jonah Hill has done (though, I haven't seen Moneyball). It could have been better in a lot of ways, but then again, it could have been a whole lot worse. This is a medium-well affair. Have at it.
(directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, 2012)
I wish 21 Jump Street had made me laugh more, although I wasn't completely laughless, and sometimes I laughed unexpectedly, even for a prolonged, but short length. That's the kind of comedies I love. On a small-medium-large scale of movies that make me laugh a lot, 21 Jump Street is definitely a medium. A medium french fry. However, the crowd in the movie theatre laughed quite a lot and seemed to be having a good time. On a plus side, though, the humor in this movie is rather raunchy and strange and unique AND to top it off, 21 Jump Street, while initially appearing like it's going to be slow and boring at first, catches you and becomes completely engaging and even classic.
I have never seen the TV show, 21 Jump Street, but I have a feeling this isn't a bad movie adaptation. It makes me interested in seeing the TV show now and I would love to see a sequel to this movie. I hope they make one that's even better than the first. There already appears to be a setup for the next one. In this movie, Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum play two people from different high school cliques (circa 2005) who, in 2012, meet up again when they join the police force. They become friends because Jonah Hill's character is smart and can help Channing with tests and such. Then they end up working together - on bicycles. After they bust some redneck thugs with drugs in the park, but fail to read them their Miranda Rights, they are assigned to a secret location - a church - which is 21 Jump Street. There they meet Ice Cube playing a hilarious and thoroughly wonderful, badass police captain, who gives them their new mission - to go undercover as high school students and stop a new and dangerous drug from virally being passed around to other schools.
Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum have good chemistry. I have to say, though, that I prefer Jonah Hill over Channing Tatum, which might seem odd. Not only has he lost some weight and looks better than ever here, he is a far more amusing and talented actor than Channing Tatum. Channing was good for being the solid meat and Sylvester Stallonish force of the team, however, his character gets put to work with really horrible, unnecessary minor characters -- dweeby school geeks who help him with some kind of phone-spying plot that never pans out to be anything interesting or useful -- and Jonah Hill ends up with the cool kids, who are more developed in the story and more interesting. Channing's character doesn't have much life, while Jonah's is bursting with life -- we even get to meet his parents, but we learn nothing about Channing's family. If I was him, I'd demand a better role in the next film, though hopefully they won't cut back on Jonah's as well.
My biggest gripe about this movie, though, was that it was extremely fast paced with many short scenes. It was hard to focus. At 1:30 in the morning, I was already sleepy and I seriously thought I might fall asleep during the first thirty minutes of the film. Things would happen and I just wasn't alert enough to pick up on what happened -- I blame the movie for this, I really do. It has a very erratic style. It's also one of those movies where scenes happen and you think the scene will serve at least some kind of purpose by ending on a funny note, but it doesn't happen and it just falls flat. It's like endlessly slurping from a straw and never stopping to rest and savor what you intake. The movie also has a very cool, modern, 2012-ish feel to it, which is good - I want movies to keep up with the times - but I wish it could have breathed more and maybe tried not to always be too cute. One annoying thing I hated about 21 Jump Street was its overuse of flashy words suddenly appearing on the screen. For example, during a scene where someone is doing drugs, every time the person experienced a new stage of effects that the drug causes, a screen would appearing exclaiming something like, "PHASE ONE: THE GIGGS." This kind of thing happened a lot, even when they weren't doing drugs. That's not to say that it happens all the time, but it was more than I cared for.
All in all, though, I thought 21 Jump Street was way better than average and definitely one of the best things Jonah Hill has done (though, I haven't seen Moneyball). It could have been better in a lot of ways, but then again, it could have been a whole lot worse. This is a medium-well affair. Have at it.