Hilarious albeit in all the ways you've seen before.

Rating: 8/10 (27 March 2012)

Looking at 21 Jump Street simply from it's promotional material it appeared to be just the typical cliché undercover cop comedy that we've seen before. Having watched it, is it? Well yes but it stands out for celebrating it for what it is and not insulting the audience. We have our two leads the good looking one and the typical nerd like fat one. They knew each other in school and couldn't stand each other, now they are friends as adults. Again not unusual in the slightest but the film succeeds in constantly throwing jokes that you don't really have too much time to notice the clichés. They go undercover the infiltrate a new drug craze in a school and inevitably they end up succumbing to the drugs at some point as well as enjoying themselves a little too much. There is of course the meta humour involved with mentions of 'an old program brought back from the 80's,' didn't get too much of a laugh in my particular screening but made me chuckle. And let's face it by the time you've sat down to watch you've only yourself to blame for not knowing what's in store. The film has decent performances from our two leads but in my opinion the stand out was Channing Tatum who just seemed to be more naturally funny in the role. However Jonah Hill's actions did bring more laughs at times. There is plenty of action and you more or less need to pay attention as there almost seems to fit in more jokes at these points to go along with the fast paced sequences. Other characters were decent and it was funny to see our leads attempt to fit in with the changed high school personalities from their days. This was where Channing Tatum particularly stood out. All in all it comes down to many things you see coming but learn to have fun with it enjoy the silliness and you may enjoy. It has beaten recent attempts at buddy cop comedies hands down.