21 Jump Street gets a 21st Century Makeover

When I first heard that ’21 Jump Street’ was going to be made into a movie, I thought: “Oh great!  Just what we need, another ill-conceived movie in an industry with no more new ideas to ruin a TV show I used to watch.”  After all, I’m still trying to wipe the bad taste out of my mouth for the travesties committed to such classic TV shows as ‘Starsky  & Hutch,’ ‘The Dukes of Hazard,’ ‘Get Smart,’ ‘Miami Vice,’ 'Wild, Wild West' and ‘Bewitched,’ to name just a few.  And while ’21 Jump Street’ wasn’t exactly a great TV show, it did last for 5 seasons from 1987 to 1991 and gave a young struggling actor named Johnny Depp the break that he needed in the 'biz.'

Then the preview further turned me off.  I mean, come on, they made it into a buddy-cop comedy starring “pretty-boy-of-the-moment” Channing Tatum and that annoying-as-hell Jonah Hill for chrissakes!   Its trailer looked plain stupid and there was just no way, I mean no friggin’ way I was gonna go see this crap.  Well, guess what?  I did and, even though I expected it to be a piece of foul-smelling you-know-what, it wasn’t bad at all!   Maybe reinventing it as an R-rated sophomoric comedy wasn’t such a bad idea after all.  And God only knows why I still crack up whenever Ice Cube calls them ‘a bunch of Justin Beaver (that’s how he pronounced it),  Miley Cyrus looking motherfuckers,’ even though I saw the preview at least three times already.  I guess it’s just the way he said it and that look of disgust on his face when he addressed these Justin Bieber/Miley Cyrus lookalikes that made it so funny.

’21 Jump Street’ worked for me because it is an unapologetically offensive comedy set in high school, and I just love unapologetically offensive comedies set in high schools.  It is not a non-stop laugh riot, but it had enough moments to make it entertaining.   I still find Jonah Hill unbearably annoying most of the time but I gotta hand it to him, he has a knack for comedic timing and comic delivery.  As in all buddy-cop comedies, there is a chase scene or two in the movie.   The memorable one in this movie is when they’re going after a biker gang in a student-driver car and then a pink VW beetle.  Throughout the chase there were times when you were sure there's gonna be a big Michael Bay-inspired ‘Bad Boys’ type of over-the-top explosion, but then nothing happens.  And then when you least expected an explosion, it did on account of something seemingly innocuous.

As you might expect, there were cameos from '21 Jump Street' alums in this movie, notably Johnny Depp, Peter DeLuise and Richard Grieco as DEA officers, as well as Holly Robinson-Peete as an LAPD officer in charge of the motor pool.  All in all, '21 Jump Street' is not without its faults, but I was mildly surprised that it far exceeded my admittedly low expectations.

7 out of 10