21 Jump Street – review

Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum in 21 Jump Street. Photograph: Columbia Pictures/Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar

The young directorial duo, Phil Lord and Chris Miller, have brought the mullet-heavy 80’s TV series 21 Jump Street – which fast-tracked Johnny Depp to Hollywood stardom – to the big screen. The show is largely-unknown on these shores, but the show and this film’s premise is made for the cinema.

2012’s reincarnation sees two eager, but immature newly-qualified cops transferred to a special police initiative, headed up by boisterous Captain Dickson (Ice Cube), where they must go undercover in a school to investigate the distribution of a new drug that has spread like wildfire amidst teenagers.

Officers Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) are expected to masquerade as high school seniors and Dickson’s unerring brief is to “infiltrate the dealers and find the suppliers”. This opens up endless humorous opportunities and the film could have gone down the juvenile post-American Pie route, but 21 Jump Street is much smarter and funnier than that and Lord and Miller have delivered a real unexpected gem with this riot of a comedy.

The twist in the premise is that the two cops have history, as 7 years previous Schmidt and Jenko attending school together. Jenko was a typical oppressor of geeks – handy with the ladies, but bottom of the class – while Schmidt was the over-mothered grade-A student who was inept in the presence of girls.

Just when it seems like they are about to relive these roles, whilst undercover at this school, roles are reversed after Jenko gets their new identities mixed when enrolling. This means that he is stuck in science classes with the tech-savvy bods and Schmidt must reluctantly tackle drama and sport.

Alongside the snappy banter between the leads and slapstick action laughs, there is a weigh of sentiment and life lessons being developed in the subplot that makes 21 Jump Street one of that rare breed of comedies that make you continually laugh out loud, while simultaneously caring wholeheartedly about the plight of the characters – think Superbad and Shaun of the Dead.

Some of the off-the-wall moments in this film, of which there are many, leave you laughing into the following scene. When befriending the school pusher [Dave Franco], our heroes must take the drug to gain his trust, which produces some hilariously bizarre, cartoon-like scenes of crazed behaviour. The personality of screenwriter Michael Bacall (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) is strongest here and it helps that the directors have a history in animation.

A comedy blockbuster adaptation co-starring the beefcake, ex-model/dancer Channing Tatum looked ominous pre-release – Vin Diesel and Dwanye “The Rock” Johnson spring to mind – but Tatum is revelation as the bullyboy jock-turned good and is the perfect foil to the awkwardly uncool act of Jonah Hill.

There is plenty of thoughtful, social comment meat on the bones in the movie, as the hierarchic rules amongst students have changed since the officers were at school. The eco-conscience creative types are the cool crowd now and when Schmidt gets in with the crew, there is the threat that he is in too deep; enjoying his new found status in classroom demographics. Although, initially struggling to deal with being a Neanderthal on the scrapheap, Jenko soon embraces the surprisingly-interesting science squares. Can they remain focused on their objective when things suddenly get out of hand?

I urge everyone to go see this film for many reasons, but the sheer laugh-count alone is worth the cinema admission and I rate this as one of the funniest films in years – up there with The Hangover and Step Brothers.

21 Jump Street (15)
Directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller
Starring: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube and Dave Franco.
Running time: 109 minutes

21 Jump Street is showing at the Hackney Picturehouse until Thursday 29 March.