Follow the Pinata

Rating: 6/10 (18 March 2012)

Greetings again from the darkness. The original 1987-91 TV series "jump" started Johnny Depp's mega-superstardom career, and yes, he is a generous enough to appear in a brief cameo in this updated film from co-directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller. The script from co-writers Michael Bacall and Jonah Hill makes little effort to stay true to the source material and that works in the film's favor.
We first meet Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) as polar opposites at the same high school. One of them is a pudgy, nerdy looking guy trying hard to throw down an Eminem look, while the other is the ultra-cool jock who is skating by academically. Guess which is which? Flash forward seven years and these two are still misfits ... this time at the police academy where one aces the physical fitness tests and bombs academically and the other is just the opposite. Guess which is which? So these two decide to become buddies and help each other live the dream as badass cops.
Cut to the next scene where they are patrolling a park on bicycles visualizing their first big bust. When things go wrong ... SURPRISE! ... they are assigned to Captain Dickson (Ice Cube), an angry man who runs the Jump Street undercover unit out of a Korean church. Since neither Hill nor Tatum look anything like high schoolers, the absurdity is written into the script. They become the most mis-matched brothers since Schwarzenegger and Devito in Twins.
Their mission is to discover the dealers and source for a new drug making its way through a local high school. The drug has already killed one student and it takes these two "brothers" about 5 minutes to uncover the dealers. The supplier is a bit slower to come and the process involves numerous comedy skits involving Tatum as a science geek and Hill as Peter Pan.
The comedy skits involve nice work from Elle Kemper, Nick Offerman, Rob Riggle and Chris Parnell. The cool kids are played by Dave Franco (James' brother) and Brie Larson. Car chases, a keg party, science experiments and the prom all play a role, as do white tuxedos and one of the oddest shootouts ever filmed. What seems like 1200 rounds are fired in a hotel room before someone is actually hit.
In addition to Depp's pretty cool cameo, there's also an appearance from Peter DeLuise and Holly Robinson Peete, both from the TV series. Of course the story is ridiculous and the film never really takes itself seriously, but I was actually somewhat impressed with Channing Tatum's ability to play deadpan to Jonah Hill's slapstick. The two worked pretty well together and there are enough laughs to make this one worth seeing.