21 Jump Street

Well, You Do have the Right to be an Attorney, if you Want to...

When I first saw 21 Jump Street, I was excessively intoxicated, and remembered very little of it. I have now watched it a second time, and realized how much I greatly enjoyed it.

Both Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum are great here. They both have an stupendous realization of physical comedy. I knew this of Jonah Hill. Tatum was the one I was unsure of. But he turns in an equally great performance; inciting as many laughs as Hill. I find no faults in his performance.

Hill and Tatum, both police officers, go undercover into a high school to find the distributor and supplier of a new type of drug (I am unsure as to the details of this drug, other than it fucks you up). The brilliance of this film rests in its irony. Tatum, who attended high school with Hill, and was the popular kid, encounters a reversal of roles in this high school. It is Hill who becomes popular, and Tatum who becomes disliked by many (other than the chemistry nerds). The film is well aware of the genre cliches, and readily works around them. When a tanker is shot and begins spewing fuel, we of course expect it to explode. As do the characters. But it doesn't.

At one point, the characters discuss the "recycling of material" and the intention of us to accept it. Ironic, since 21 Jump Street is a recycled remake in and of itself.

There are a great many ironic pleasures, some within the climactic encounter, which I shall not reveal, but they are fantastically fun.

Sure, this is a film that operates under a standard action-comedy formula, but its undermining of shopworn cliches and insight into true comedy allows it to stand out. It's a highly entertaining, funny, and if you get the references, a hilariously ironic piece of filmmaking.

***1/2