Life is busy.
There is work, there is family, there are relationships, there is music, there is video games, there is books and there is movies. I’m sure I forgot other stuff that I try to fit into my active schedule.
This being said, when I say catching up on movies, I really mean catching up because there are usually a good 100 movies I’ll watch two years after they came out in the movie theater.
The Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill film version of the late 1980’s, early 1990’s TV show, 21 Jump Street, is no different.
When I first seen the previews in 2012 I thought the movie would be funny. I also thought it might be watchable in more than one sitting — very few movies will be re-watched because of all the movies I haven’t seen yet.
This movie was both.
Tatum and Hill were both hilarious. Tatum is more known for his serious roles than comedy, but he did a solid job as a dumb jock, which I don’t really know how much of it was acting. He got to beat some people up and blow stuff up after he befriended some nerds from a chemistry class.
Hill is usually good for a chuckle or two, but has never had me laugh through an entire movie. I don’t like his style of being loud and obnoxious but than scampers out of a situation when it gets sticky. Yes, this is a lot of actors shticks, but the way he does it is usually very annoying.
His eyes get real big and blink a million times, while his speech gets real soft instead of commanding like it is for the most part of his movies. In these confrontational moments, he looks like he’s about to shit his pants.
This isn’t really fun for me to watch.
However, Hill surprised me in this movie.
The only scene that made me want to turn off the movie was at the very beginning when Hill — as Slim Shaddy — attempted to ask a hot girl to the Prom. This scene is exactly why I don’t really care for Hill movies, except for Super Bad, but it wasn’t him that made the movie good.
I’m glad I didn’t turn it off because he was more than bearable for the duration.
Actually, directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller used Hill’s quarks to amplify his character. Hill got wide eyed and droopy tongued when he was trying to shoot a gun, which helped the movie and the story.
The two actors played their parts well together and made it seem like they were really young, bad cops instead of actors.
Overall, the story line was good. There was a few things that didn’t work like the high school kid selling drugs and DeRay Davis as the head of a biker gang.
The Eric character was a weak play of a teen drug dealer. For the most part, they usually act like a hard ass all the time or a happy-go-lucky teen all the time. It’s very rare that they split the characterizations.
Davis is a hilarious comedian, who does not work well as a tough guy. It didn’t play out well in this movie, that’s for sure.
I’ll definitely watch this movie again because of some good laughs. I don’t think it’s the best movie I’ve seen in a while, but it I want to laugh, I’ll put it on.
aBrandedChance 