I feel like Channing Tatum is taking over my movie collection. Another one and its 21 Jump Street. I saw this about a week ago and I haven’t really been able to pinpoint how I feel about it.
Director: Phil Lord and Chris Miller
Cast: Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Ice Cube, Brie Tracey, Dave Franco, Rob Riggle, Ellie Kemper, Jake Johnson
Back in high school, Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) couldn’t be more different. However, due to their own reasons they both ended up missing senior prom. Years later, they meet again in police academy and eventually become good friends and partners. When they get chosen to be part of the secret mission team, 21 Jump Street lead by Captain Dickson (Ice Cube) for their young physical appearances, they have to investigate disguised as brothers in high school. Much to their surprise, the high scene has changed a lot from how they remembered it and they each need to overcome their own problems to figure out who leads the drug ring in the high school and how to arrest them to prevent it from spreading out to other schools.
The best part about this movie was the bromance. Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill make for a great cop duo. Their interaction made it so funny. I’m not one to fully appreciate certain forms of humor in movies normally but this one had a few funny moments that got me. Before this movie and just 2012 in general, I always felt that Channing Tatum had this very blank look in this face which works for the roles that he was casted in. Some thing resembling the army/military background with some parts of him being unable to allow him to emote thoroughly. It worked alright with that character but this one, I felt like he burst out of his shell. Of course, after that, he did Magic Mike which was totally different also.
I’m not too familiar with Jonah Hill and looking at his filmography, he’s actually voiced some parts for some pretty good animated flicks. I wasn’t particularly pleased with his humor here by himself. As a team with Channing Tatum, he was a lot more appealing especially when they fought like children. The best had to be Ellie Kemper who played Ms. Griggs. She was hilarious! I really loved Ice Cube doing Captain Dickson also. They were the highlights of this movie. One more mention goes out to Jake Johnson in the role of the principal of the school. All very good supporting cast to make it even more comedic 🙂
This is pretty much an action comedy. To me, there wasn’t a whole lot of action but the comedy was decent so its average. It won’t be a waste of time to watch this, mostly because there are parts that prove to be surprisingly quite fun 🙂 The bromance is outstanding and you’ll have fun watching some of the on screeen chemistry go on. It has some awkward humor here and there but it all works to its favor!
Comedy is appealing or not depending on who watches it so there really is not recommendation or not. The best way to know is to just watch the trailer and see if that sort of thing appeals to you. If it does, then go for it. Its pretty enjoyable 🙂
Did you enjoy 21 Jump Street? What do you think of Channing Tatum and/or Jonah Hill?
Tranquil Dreams 