21 Jump Street Review

A breath of fresh air for the buddy-cop comedy.
Full review by Isaac Handelman

21 Jump Street can effectively be summed up by one word: unusual. The contemporary re-imagining of an eighties cop drama series (starring a then-unknown Johnny Depp, no less), this raunchy R-rated comedy isn’t exactly what you’d call a run-of-the-mill adaptation. 

The film pairs mismatched stars Jonah Hill (pudgy, up-and-coming comic) and Channing Tatum (Hollywood hunk and occasional action superstar). Surprisingly, the duo works well, as the two turn out to posses an amusing comedic chemistry. Hill rambles about the screen as that lovable misfit, while Tatum traverses the full spectrum between ultra-popular jock and geeky chemistry nerd with impressive grace. The two never truly break free from the traditional buddy cop cliches, but this misstep can be mostly forgotten due to their fledgling careers, a rarity of the genre.

The newly friended Schmidt (Hill) and Jenko (Tatum) are promptly sent off to a resurrected undercover police division with headquarters on, you guessed it, 21 Jump Street. After being briefed by the amusingly cast Captain Dickson (Ice Cube), they take position at a local high school in an attempt to destabilize the school’s localized drug ring and prevent the new substance from spreading to the rest of the town. The two find themselves in very different positions as Schmidt copes with the terrifying prospect of returning to the nightmarish high-school environment he recalls, and Jenko tries to comprehend the new trends and factors of popularity that have so drastically changed since he ruled the school.

The film more or less meshes two overused setups into one unusual premise, resulting in a one-of-a-kind cinema experience. While many elements of the film feel recycled, they’re paired in such unique ways that the resulting experience doesn’t feel cliched. It’s an interesting way to go about things, and it mostly works. If you’ve always wanted to see what would happen if a buddy cop comedy were fused with an amusing tale of high-school angst, then Jump Street is the movie for you.

Laughs are mostly found either in the slapstick form, or at the expense of the two main characters. There’s a lot of immature gross out humor here, but it never feels overused or unnecessary thanks to the endearing immaturity of the two leads; these are two souls trying desperately to fit in with the adult world, and they’re brought together by the failure to do so for wildly differing reasons. Character driven comedies like this are difficult to pull off if the characters aren’t likable, but, as aforementioned, 21 Jump Street, doesn’t suffer from this problem. Thanks in part to the chemistry of its leads and their relatable issues, Schmidt and Jenko are personalized to an extent that few other comedies of this caliber can achieve. 

As Schmidt and Jenko attempt frantically to track down the drug supplier, Jump Street encounters its major stumbling point. The hunt for the bad guys seems to be almost placed aside during a portion of the film’s second half, as the narrative instead selects its high school drama to take center stage during this time. While the mix of cop comedy and high school story is an amusing one, it was my feeling that the cop comedy half should have undoubtedly gotten the bigger slice. And while this plot thread does get more time to blossom in the long run, I still would’ve liked to see less time devoted to personal/romantic issues of high school and more dedicated to the central relationship and escapades of Schmidt and Jenko, whatever form that would take. There’s a decent, forty-or-so minute stretch where the two have very little time together on the screen, and the film’s momentum suffers because of this. Luckily, Jump Street manages to partially make up for this with with an exciting, constantly hilarious (and surprising) finale that largely reunites Schmidt and Jenko.

Despite a few pacing-related missteps and some cliched elements, 21 Jump Street is a thoroughly enjoyable comedy. Fans of the original series may not be satisfied with this wildly divergent take on the property, but most moviegoers will find the film to be a consistently amusing and occasionally quite exciting buddy-cop comedy with a touch of genuine emotion that propels it well above the heights of most films of its genre. 

Final Score:

7.0/10

“Good”