You Better Be Ready To Jump

Rating: 5/10 (3 April 2012)

This is definitely not the 21 Jump Street that I remember from the 80s. The program that launched Johnny Depp as a star had its funny moments, usually supplied by Peter DeLuise, but the episodes tackled some very serious topics and many of them were outstanding drama without a laugh in them.
Such is not the case here where you've got a couple of misfit cops who might have graduated from the Police Academy that George Gaynes was the commandant of. The old Jump Street program that was in an abandoned chapel is being revived for the new millenia and Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum have been selected for the program because of their youthful demeanor.
Their rather impatient captain, Ice Cube sends them into a high school to bust a drug ring after the death of one of the students. These two manage to mismatch their covers, but incredibly enough it seems to work out for them.
Tatum and Hill have some history between them. Tatum was a popular jock and an academic dud who barely graduated. Hill was a nerdy kid who couldn't get anyone of the opposite sex to look at him. For him this is a big do over, but he barely keeps his mind on the assignment.
By the advertising I knew I was not going to get the old familiar 21 Jump Street other than cameo appearances by some of the series regulars back in the day. But I've seen it all before and done better even in the Police Academy movies which never pretended to be comedy of the lowest common denominator.
The film has some comic moments, but will disappoint people who think they're going to see a big screen version of what was a big hit in the late 80s.