Not brilliant, but there are enough laughs to make it worth watching

Rating: 6/10 (13 March 2014)

Schmidt (Hill) and Jenko (Tatum) are a pair of underachieving cops who find themselves being sent back to a local high school by Captain Dickson (Ice Cube) to try to infiltrate a team of drug dealer students who are selling a dangerous drug called 'HFS' to their fellow students. As part of their cover, they pose as brothers Doug and Brad Quaid. They not only have to infiltrate the dealers, but they also need to find out who the person is that is responsible for supplying the drug. This proves more difficult than Schmidt and Jenko imagined as they try to balance the need to re-live their youths with the undercover investigation that they've been assigned to by Captain Dickson.
I must admit that when I saw the Top Billed Cast as Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, and Ice Cube it didn't exactly fill me with confidence. However, these 3 actors worked really well together and I found that I was pleasantly surprised by how good the performances were between the 3 leads. Tatum isn't the greatest actor in the world, but he was good here and actually proved to be quite funny. Hill is a better actor and he did give a better performance than Tatum, but whenever they were on screen together they were a joy to watch. The biggest surprise for me was Ice Cube's performance as Captain Dickson. If we're honest, yes perhaps it was over the top, but I just found his character to be the funniest character in this film and he also arguably had some of the best lines in this film. He really did steal every scene he was in (although it's difficult to ignore the shameless product placement of 'Straight Outta Compton' playing in the background whilst Dickson is talking - this song was by NWA which were a group of which Ice Cube was a member).
What makes this work is that although Schmidt and Jenko both have major weaknesses, their strengths almost compensate for them. Jenko is a jock who is physically strong, fast and athletic, but unfortunately he has an IQ in single figures. Whereas Schmidt is the academic geeky one who gets full marks in his assessments, but is totally useless at the practical side of policing (i.e arresting suspects). I liked the idea of Jenko (the jock) being the one that struggles to gain acceptance when they are enrolled back at school during their undercover operation whereas Schmidt (the geek) is the one that proves to be popular. This goes against the norm and was the opposite to what happened when they were actually at school together. The film really starts to get funny when Schmidt and Jenko end up enrolled on the wrong courses when, as part of their cover they can't remember who was Brad and who was Doug which subsequently forces Jenko to enrol in Chemistry classes and Schmidt to enrol in drama and athletics. However, this proves to be a good move for Jenko and Schmidt as they are both given the opportunity to strengthen their weak areas - Jenko is still the braun, but also gains some 'smarts' and Schmidt is still the brainy one, but he also toughens up. This obviously works to their advantage as the film progresses.
As I mentioned, this also gives the opportunity for Jenko and Schmidt to re-live their youths (this proves to be more important to Schmidt as he had such a lousy time at school). This aspect of the film was another strong point as Jenko and Schmidt at times seemed to forget that they had a job to do and they both just seem to want to get 'down with the kids'.
If I was to be critical of this film I would say that the humour is pretty 'low brow' and for the most part isn't exactly 'intelligent' humour, but I can forgive the film because for the most part the 'low brow' humour was fairly funny. I also felt the finale was a little overblown and went on for a tad too long. There are 1 or 2 surprises towards the end (1 of which will definitely come as a surprise).
On the whole, this film was good and there was definitely enough humour to make it watchable. It's far from a brilliant film and a lot of the 'low brow' humour may bother some people. Personally, I found that it just about managed to avoid crossing the line between being funny and being vulgar. It's a long way off being the funniest film I've ever seen, but there are worse ways that you can spend 105 minutes.