Netflix Mail Day Movie Review: "21 Jump Street" (2012)

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Movie: "21 Jump Street"
Director: Phil Lord & Christopher Miller
Year: 2012
Rating: R
Running Time: 1 hour, 49 minutes

Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) are pretty crappy cops. After they get assigned to a revitalized program called 21 Jump Street, the two are tasked with going under cover and pose as students at a local high school in order to infiltrate the dealer and find the supplier of a new drug called HFS. 

When we first saw the trailer for this movie, we thought it would be pretty stupid. When old TV shows get rebooted into modern film, they can be very hit or miss, and usually, they miss. Plus, Tatum and Hill seemed like an unlikely pair to cast as best friends for a movie. We were quite surprised when we laughed almost entirely through this film!

Whatever makes Tatum and Hill seem weird together actually works really well on screen. They play off of each other's strengths and weaknesses and make it obvious that it's a joke. It starts out as your typical "odd couple" scenario riddled with topical 2000's pop culture references: Tatum is a dumb jock vying for acceptance, and Hill is a goofy, awkward nerd. When they go under cover, Schmidt is the popular one as nerd-culture has become prevalent thanks to the internet, and Jenko's "I don't care about anything and try too hard to impress people" shtick doesn't really work in 2012. Whenever the two are together, it's an undeniable bromance. There are many, many laughs and some outrageously funny situations the two find themselves in. Minor characters played by Ice Cube, Nick Offerman, Rob Riggle, and even Johnny Depp add to this movies already hilarious repertoire. The drug tripping scene is one of our favorites, and I am partial to Korean Jesus.

This was an unexpected treasure when we first watched it a couple of years ago, and it's good to know it hasn't lost its spark since then. It was still just as funny the second time around.

My Rating: 8.5/10
BigJ's Rating: 8.5/10
IMDB's Rating: 7.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 85%
Do we recommend this movie: Yes!!