Reviewed: 21 Jump Street

21 Jump Street, which took first place at the box office this past weekend, is a movie I wholeheartedly recommend to everyone other than your grandparents.  It has some terrific gut busting moments and, unlike many Adam Sandler movies that make a ton of money but suck, is genuinely funny and deserves your money. Who’d have guessed Channing Tatum could actually be in a movie I liked? Weird.

Starring C-Tates and skinny Jonah Hill, 21 Jump Street is a buddy cop, bromance, riff on the tv show that made Johnny Depp a star.  It is closest in likeness to Starsky and Hutch featuring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, but was clearly written by Michael Bacall and Jonah Hill for a new generation.  The story follows the original tv series, where two youthful cops, who in this case are absolutely terrible at their jobs (C-Tates appears to be semi-illiterate and can’t learn the Miranda Rights, Skinny Jonah is an insecure weakling), are sent to infiltrate a high school drug ring as there is nowhere else to put them.  Apparently undercover work is a demotion from bicycle patrol, but let’s just leave that plot hole alone.

The movie then follows our heroes through their 30 day quest before senior prom (something we find out neither character attended while they were in high school) to find the kingpin by infiltrating the popular kids network who deal the drugs.  The movie features some great verbal and physical gags that I don't want to spoil, but they “illustrate” how much high school life has changed in a decade, as well as what it’s like to trip on drugs (my favorite 3 minutes of the movie).

The movie becomes more and more madcap, culminating at the senior prom where all hell breaks loose.  The movie features terrific cameos by recognizable faces and is actually well rounded with a subplot of our heroes dealing with their insecurities.  It is a hilarious comedy with some actual heart to it.

All in all I really enjoyed the movie, as did the rest of the audience in my theater if the audible laughs are a good indication.  I’d even go so far to say this may be the first movie of the year that I would see twice in theaters.

Matt Brickell is a managing editor and frequently nostalgic.