21 Jump Street - Laughing along with you

Rating: 7/10 (2 May 2012)

This is basically a film version of an 80's TV series that kick started Johnny Depp's career. It's about two rubbish cops (Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum) going into a police program to pretend to be in high school so to infiltrate a drugs ring that's killed a kid in the school.
NOW STOP, no not hammertime but don't worry. I know that sounds like a very rubbish stupid comedy film but very early on makes you realise it knows its stupid when the guy in charge of the operation explains something about the program to the two cops, I quote "a revived undercover program from the '80s, revamped for modern times; the people who make these things up are old and out of ideas, so they try updating (stuff) like this and hope we don't notice". See now that line shows you that it realises its no top notch film and that it is just in it for the ride with a few laughs.
First and foremost yes it is funny, which is a relief as about 3/4 of films that label themselves "comedy" really just arn't. It has some pretty silly gags sometimes but these are outweighed by the tonnes of good jokes and are really insignificant in comparison to 1 or 2 of the fantastic lines in the film. The film isn't too plot heavy which is good as it adds realism to the pair and allows them to branch out to allow some story with the side characters, which stops too many sight gags and fart jokes being used as filler.
Looking at Channing Tatum's IMDb page (I don't think I've seen many of his films) he seems to be in mainly rom-coms and what are essentially girly movies. In this though he is really quite good, he doesn't overplay his character which may be due to him coming from a more straight up film background. The way he delivers his lines isn't cheesy and he gives his character a realistic portrayal while still being hilarious at times. Jonah Hill is Jonah Hill which doesn't need any more on it and the side characters and pretty funny with a good cameo right at the end.
It has that problem all Hollywood comedy's have of having a sad bit 3/4 the way through the film, which by the way one of my favourite comedies - pineapple express - does not, but I can't really bring it down too much for as it's probably forced to include it by the company behind the film. It's also a touch long but neither of these things take away from what is a good self-mickey-taking comedy film.
7/10. Good laughs from some of the leaders of the current generation of comedy