21 JUMP STREET (Phil Lord, Chris Miller). 109 minutes. Opens Friday (March 16). For venues and times, see Movies. Rating: NNNN
The trick to enjoying this juvenile 21 Jump Street reboot is not to take any of it seriously. That’s pretty easy, since it never takes itself or its cheesy TV series source material very seriously either.
“All they do now is recycle shit from the past and expect us not to notice,” says one character, speaking contemptuously about both the titular undercover operation, where young cops pose as high school students to bust a drug operation, and the film itself.
Directed by the duo behind Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs and written by star Jonah Hill and Michael Bacall, the film is all meta and tongue-in-cheek shenanigans that proudly lifts a middle finger to the hoary clichés it recycles promptly after. Even Jump Street alum Johnny Depp gets in on the act in a giddy cameo that pokes fun at himself. The movie’s not brilliant, but it damn sure is a lot of fun.
Hill and Channing Tatum deserve high marks for their enthusiastic turns as the outcast and jock respectively, who return to the realm of a high school movie and find their social roles reversed in a post-Glee era. They develop an agreeable onscreen camaraderie and even make dick jokes funny again.
Tatum in particular is a huge surprise. He’s always been a pretty face, but here (as in his recent SNL outing) he displays comedic chops we never saw coming.
