Hollywood has a way of wearing us down. Their current tactic combines a heavy dose of sequels and re-makes. Sometimes, I think they don’t want us to go to the movies anymore.
Then I go see a movie like “21 Jump Street” and have my faith restored in the decision makers (something I know I will regret soon enough).
My wife and I went to see the film a few weeks ago, and I can’t believe I waited this long to share my thoughts. I had heard good things before we saw the movie and managed to not raise the expectations above what the movie could deliver.
Two things contributed to my enjoyment – a good cast and the ability to poke fun at the entire concept of making a movie based on a TV show which barely hit 100 episodes. These two factors combine in an early scene when Nick Offerman, aka Ron F—ing Swanson from “Parks and Recreation,” assigns starts Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum to the Jump Street assignment. He talks about the task force being something forced by his superiors because they couldn’t come up with any new ideas.
From there we go on a ride that shows us how Tatum can pull off some masterful comic scenes, how Ice Cube and Rob Riggle can still scare the crap out of anyone, how Dave Franco was born to play a d-bag and how Hill can tidy everything up. He co-authored the script and did a strong job both in putting together the story and playing his role as the geek who gets a second chance at high school success, by accident of course. Hallucinogenics can really help push the plot further when nothing else will work.
And then when you think you have watched a good movie, they throw in a little surprise at the end. I’m usually not one to honor spoiler issues when something has been out for a month, but I’ll make an exception here. I loved it.
It’s fair to say that “21 Jump Street” has taken the lead in the race for The Brians and not just because the only other movie I have seen this year is “The Lorax,” which I also have to review at some point.