Channing Tatum has found his calling

Rating: 8/10 (18 November 2012)

Movie adaptation of hit TV shows are always a risky task as filmmakers try and adapt a property with a new cast and updating it to a contemporary age. The adaption and re-make 21 Jump Street decides a different approach, changing the genre from a police drama to a high school/buddy comedy film, with excellent results.
In 2005 Schmidt (Jonah Hill) is a nerd and a loser, bullied by the very stupid Jenko (Channing Tatum), a popular jock. However the two become friends at the police training academy, Schmidt helping Jenko with his academic work, whilst Jenko motivates Schimdt with physical training. During their arrest the pair show their incompetents when Jenko does not write the Miranda rights to a suspect and their superior officer transfers them to 21 Jump Street, a special division that sends young officers into high school. Their mission, to infiltrate a drugs ring in a high school and find the supplier of a new manufactured drug before it spreads to other schools. Yet the officers' roles are reversed, with Schmidt the popular kid and Jenko, the loser outsider.
What makes 21 Jump Street what is that it is a self-aware comedy and was prepared to embrace clichés of the high school and buddy comedy/action comedy genres so the filmmakers could make fun of them. 21 Jump Street shows that it is willing to make fun of Hollywood and the idea's process, the archetypes of high school and in police films. The popular kids at high school are shown to be a mixed bag, people who care about their futures, not in a particular clique and made to seem a bit more real. Admittedly the nerd characters were a bit too stereotypical but we can't have everything and at least they were not made out to be total losers. There are bites again buddy cop clichés, with Ice-T having great lines and put downs as the angry, black police captain.
21 Jump Street is more focused on comedy then action, but there comic action set pieces, one early one in the film, the other being a car chase on the freeway, playing on the idea that a freeways are busy and has fun against the bombast of other action-comedies like Lethal Weapon and Bad Boys.
21 Jump Street was directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller whose previous film was Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, a family animated film: yet they moved into an adult comedy with ease and there is even a really trippy scene when the characters are high, inject a surreal style to the film.
In the past I have critical of Tatum in the past, having seen him in films like G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra and Haywire but with 21 Jump Street he found his strongest suit, comedy. He had great comic timing and relations with Hill. Jenko grows as a character throughout the film, becoming more likable, understanding, smarter, loyal and intelligent. With the right direction he can become a great action star.
Whilst 21 Jump Street is a really entertaining film there are some criticisms. The first is Dave Franco: I know him best for role in the last series of Scrubs where he was very annoying . He just felt like a pretentious little man and was just well, a non-present in the film. The other is the relationship between Schmidt and Molly (Brie Larson) where it just felt a little out of place. Larson was fine in the film, it basically felt like fantasy reliving for Hill. The filmmakers should have focused more on the flirting and infatuation of the chemistry teacher (Ellie Kemper) who fancied Jenko and knowing it is wrong. It was played up in the trailers.
21 Jump Street is an enjoyable comedy, a refreshing take on both the buddy genre and high school genre and entertaining film.