Irreverent and hilarious

Rating: 7/10 (24 November 2012)

What happens when you take an overweight, intelligent, socially awkward "adult" and put him in the same police academy with same emotionally stunted athlete who made his life miserable all through high school?
Morton Schmidt (played by Jonah Hill) had dyed-blonde hair and braces in the twelfth grade so, naturally, when he attempted to ask out his high school crush, he choked and was shot down anyway. While this was devastating to him, Greg Jenko (played by Channing Tatum) found it hysterical and made no effort to hide it. The shoe was eventually on the other foot, however, when the principal revealed that Jenko (Tatum) would not be allowed to graduate. Years later, in the police academy, Schmidt (Hill) and Jenko meet again, they decide to help each other overcome their respective shortcomings and, in so doing, graduate. But a screw-up results in their first arrest being invalidated and, as punishment, they're reassigned to a program that was discontinued in the 80's and brought back because "the guys upstairs ran out of ideas years ago". Their new headquarters: 21 Jump Street. Under the direction of their captain (Ice Cube), they're sent undercover as high school students to find the supplier of a new drug that recently caused the death of a white high school student after he'd posted a video of himself under the influence of said drug and posted it on YouTube.
The inside jokes about the basis for this movie being a television program from the 80's and cameo appearances from two former cast members are hilarious. Also entertaining is the sharp contrast in youth culture between today and ten years ago. Hill is basically playing a role he's played several times before, ditto for Tatum, and Ice Cube, playing a role that even the cast admits is cliché, is fantastic. If you haven't already, see this movie.