"21 Jump Street"

Adaptation, Comedy, Action/Adventure. Rated R. 1 hour, 35 minutes.

by Jason Rzucidlo americajr@americajr.com

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I like any movie with Jonah Hill, ever since his days in Superbad. With the addition of Channing Tatum, the two stars make the perfect comedy duo. The film also stars Brie Larson, Dave Franco, Rob Riggle, DeRay Davis and Ice Cube. It is based on the television series, which ran from 1987-1991 that was written by Patrick Hasburgh and Stephen J. Cannell.

21 Jump Street begins in the year 2005 as Hill (who plays Schmidt) and Tatum (who plays Jenko) are in high school. They hate each other. Then, the movie flashes forward to the present day, seven years later. They are joining the police academy.

The two thought they would be driving a police car and going after the bad guys. However, things didn’t go according to plan as they were assigned to park duty. Schmidt and Jenko were asked to retrieve a kid’s frisbee and they never thought they would be doing that as a cop. Later on, they found some bad guys in the park who were doing drugs. The two officers tried to stop them, but were unsuccessful.

Next thing we know, the two are sat down in Captain Dickson’s office (played by Ice Cube). Dickson told Schmidt and Jenko that they have been reassigned to 21 Jump Street. They would be going undercover and would be working at a high school. The two officers were assigned to find out who was supplying a new drug at the school.

Schmidt saw it as a second chance in life. He wanted to be cool this time, instead of being a nerd like he was in 2005. Jenko gave his partner all the secrets to being cool. One of them was to wear your backpack on only one shoulder -- instead of on two.

They decided the easiest way to determine the supplier was to hold a house party. Schmidt gave his parents tickets to a show one night. Then, he and Schmidt invited over lots of the high school kids.

I forgot to mention that the two officers were competing against other police officers who wanted to join the force. Schmidt and Jenko were unsuccessful finding the supplier. Other possible candidates were doing much better at their assignments.

They got kicked off the force. But that wasn’t the end of the movie. You’ll have to go see the movie to find out what they did next. Did they ever find the supplier?

21 Jump Street was filmed on location in New Orleans. It is rated R for crude and sexual content, pervasive language, drug material, teen drinking and some violence. Phil Lord and Chris Miller directed the movie.

I really enjoyed the movie a lot. It was filled with lots of action and comedy, my two favorite genres of films. Normally, I have to go see an action film or a comedy film. But not this time. The movie is so popular at the box office that a sequel is already in the works, according to Sony Pictures.

OVERALL RATING: A+

Photo credit: Columbia TriStar Marketing Group, Inc.

21 Jump Street movie poster