21 Jump Street (2012)

21 Jump Street (2012)

2012 R 109 Minutes

Action | Comedy | Crime

In high school, Schmidt was a dork and Jenko was the popular jock. After graduation, both of them joined the police force and ended up as partners riding bicycles in the city park. Since they are y...

Overall Rating

7 / 10
Verdict: Good

User Review

  • 21 Jump Street is another film adaptation of an old TV show. Can we just appreciate the Tagline on the blu-ray cover: "The only thing getting blown tonight is their cover." It's poetry. For those of you who read my reviews know that I struggle with comedies, my humour is practically non-existent so I hardly ever laugh. I actually found this to be rather hilarious and laughed more than 3 times (I think that's a record?). It was good fun!! It knew exactly what it wanted to be and succeeded fantastically. A pair of police officers (who are the worst cops ever, no hyperbole) go undercover in a high school to bust a drug ring. This drug when taken has four unique phases which are portrayed on multiple occasions. They were funny as flip! Phase 2 is the greatest, massive props to the guy who envisaged those hallucinations. The story is actually well-rounded, the role reversal of our lead characters was a pleasant watch. The contrast of cliques from their past school life to the present made for some funny moments. I like the involvement of these cliques, the nerds were useful as opposed to just being picked on. The forced scenes of "yayyyy friendship is important" are quite cringe-worthy and didn't flow with the rest of the narrative. Channing Tatum was excellent, probably the first comedic role I've seen him in and he nailed it. Jonah Hill, who I notoriously dislike, was actually...dare I say...watchable. Now now, before you say "you finally like him Luke!" I still found him unfunny compared to Tatum, but he was tolerable. Brie Larson, Dave Franco and Ice Cube were also decent. A nice surprise towards the end as well. The action scenes were filmed with some exhilaration, particularly the limousine chase. I thought the editing had visual flair, reminded me of Edgar Wright. The soundtrack cutting out during a joke or the quick jump cuts to emphasise something (like the explosion opportunities in the freeway car chase). Honestly I didn't want to like this, but I had a really fun time and found it to be extremely watchable.