Undercover Brothers

Rating: 8/10 (26 December 2012)

Who would have thought that Channing Tatum would be able to go toe-to- toe with one of the poster-boys of the comedic renaissance? Not I. Imagine my surprise, then, when the chiseled actor whose usual fare is penned by none other than the gloopy Mr. Sparks exhibits just the sort of deadpan snark that Jonah Hill is known for with expert craftsmanship. In fact, the pairing makes for one of the more memorable comic duos of the past several years, ranking up there with the Seth Rogen / James Franco collaboration that gave us Pineapple Express.
The story is a rehash of an earlier picture starring Johnny Depp. Two young police officers are selected for an undercover operation at a high school. They're tasked with unhinging the distribution of a narcotic that often finds its users in the morgue. As the plot thickens, we see two individuals who occupied opposite ends of the spectrum during their first foray into the world of high school—one an uber cool jock, the other a nerd who's as socially awkward as he is smart—attempting to deal with the shifting roles that finds them embodying the other's niche in unexpected ways. In this way, 21 Jump Street is a "buddy cop" movie. This is great in that it reinvents many of the conventions of a fairly narrow genre, but it's also a detriment in that you know (for the most part) exactly what's going to happen by the end of the movie.
The unexpected humor is what makes the movie a standout, though. It's worth your time to see these two "bad boy" wannabees reference a variety of films as they fumble their way through the hormone drenched halls of a stereotypical high school while gunning down drug dealers and upending the clichés of the genre with appropriate nonchalance. Though there are times where the gratuitousness feels a tad bit unnecessary, it's funny in that cringing-because-we-can't-believe-they-actually-went-there-sort- of-way. The fact that the two leading men are able to elicit laughs while sending up a multitude of well-known action flicks is admirable, and there's no doubt that anyone willing to give Tatum a chance as he embodies an atypical role will not be disappointed.