Decent movie, takes a somewhat original spin on several movie cliché's mixed with a little Superbad!

Rating: 8/10 (20 February 2014)

Even though I have a man crush on Jonah Hill, 21 Jump Street I never considered watching, until I read a little more on it and figured it would be a chance to see some of the Seth character from Superbad (which it had). For one this is a horribly titled movie. Who the hell gives a crap about the late 80's television show 21 Jump Street? When that show was airing, I didn't know a single person who watched it. Also the last character I would want my man crush to play was a cop. There is nothing cool about being a cop and there is nothing ethical about busting people for putting something in their own body. With that said, this movie didn't take the cop role very seriously. Around the time when Doug and Brad had the house party supplying alcohol and drugs to high school peeps I was cool with this movie. There was still the lingering thought of, yeah, but they're going to eventually bust the drug seller and supplier. Well, the movie goes out of it's way to make the ring extremely shady folk, although I could have done without the kid being arrested even though he's a total chode. Anyways, this movie does nothing to promote cops or the drug war, which makes it watchable, at least for me.
21 Jump Street is no masterpiece, but it has some funny moments and is mildly entertaining. I can't believe they're making a second movie though. I'm guessing Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum signed to a sequel in their initial contracts, because there is no way in hell Jonah Hill would have done a sequel to this movie. BTW not really familiar with Channing Tatum prior to this movie, but he's a good actor as well.
This movie was full of cliché's, although each cliché has an original spin. The uncoordinated dorky smart guy teams up with the coordinated cool dumb guy. Most of you probably aren't familiar with the movie Class Act, but the names get mixed and the cool kid and nerdy kid switch roles (I'm sure this has been done in several movies over the years). 21 Jump Street takes this cliché and puts enough of it's own spin on it to own it. You also get to see a little of Jonah Hill's Seth character from Superbad, which is good. This movie also doesn't entirely ride out the prom cliché, but it runs through it.
I have a hard time with the fine line of believable far fetched comedy (in the generic sense) and stupid far fetched comedy. This movie has it's share of both. When a movie starts killing people like it's a cartoon or a video game it knocks down the genuine comedy feel a couple of notches. Superbad had it's ultra far fetched moments, but maintained a genuine feel throughout the movie, this movie does not. Johny Depp and the other dude from 21 jump street getting killed (could have done without either) in conjunction with the "bad guys", kind of kills the celebration moment when Doug and Brad "save the day".
Overall this movie was decent. I would give it a 65-70 out of 100. Jonah Hill must have had a serious payday though to take this role even though he's ordinarily good at passing up money deals to be in quality roles. This was a decent movie decision for Hill, probably a big payday and he lost weight in the process. Part II on the other hand, not good, but I doubt it will have a negative effect on his career at this point.