Movie Review: 21 Jump Street

pleasantly surprised

I initially cringed at the idea of remaking 21 Jump Street. Growing up in the early 90's, I remember watching reruns on TV after my early morning cartoons had ended. I know it's cheesy as hell, but I loved that show and still know all the words to the theme song. Anyways, I was kind of pissed Hollywood was going to mess with my cherished childhood memories. Luckily, this movie isn't all that bad. In fact I laughed quite a bit.

Here are the two reasons I feel the new 21 Jump Street reboot works. Vile Nostalgia and Channing Tatum.

Here at Jim's Fear, I like to classify Vile Nostalgia as getting all misty eyed/longing for things that you previously hated or something that makes no sense at all. My previous post about Paula Abdul is a perfect example. Anyways, 21 Jump Street's big gag is that two police officers who graduated high school in 2005 are out of touch cave men when they head back to campus as undercover cops in 2012.

OMG! Nostaliga for Slim Shady = LULZ

This sounds pretty asinine when you think about it. Like that South Park episode ("Prehistoric Ice Man") with the dude from 1996 who gets frozen for three years and can't handle the cruel future world of....1999. Shit JUST happened man! Although this seems lame at first, once the two protagonists actually set foot in high school again you see just how funny and real it all is. Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum's characters are relics from a pre-iPhone era. The high school students of today are more tech savvy, socially aware and intellectual than the neanderthals of the the 2000's. Obama's been their president since they were kids, they instant stream their music/porn and don't even bother downloading it. One of my favorite parts of the movie is when they're strolling the high school parking lot on their first day and fail at trying to identify all the familiar social cliques.

The other great thing about 21 Jump Street is Mr. (secret gay icon himself) Channing Tatum. Never thought I'd be praising this dude's acting chops but I gotta say, he had me laughing. Jonah Hill basically plays the same neurotic character he does in all his comedies but Tatum's timing and delivery of certain lines ("FUCK SCIENCE!") were flat out hilarious. The whole movie is insanely tongue in cheek. I'm talking flat out campy, complete with cameos from the original 21 Jump Street cast (Johhny Depp, Peter DeLuise, Holly Robinson Peete, and even a brief shout out to Dustin Nguygen) so it kind of amazed me that in a movie so wholeheartedly absurd as this, Channing Tatum's character was the only person I believed was real. Kudos man. "AP Chemistry Bitch."

I'd recommend this to anyone who likes goofy ass buddy pictures or people who suffer from Vile Nostalgia, even if it's for Y2K, like myself.