“21 Jump Street” is a quick-witted action comedy starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum. The duo teams up in this action comedy to recreate this story. Originally, “21 Jump Street” was a hit television series from 1987-1991.
The movie version “21 Jump Street” starts out with the characters played by Hill and Tatum as they were in high school. Tatum stars as Jenko, the typical popular jerky jock who all the girls loved and the guys envied. Hill, on the other hand, plays Eminem-wannabe Schmidt, who got straight A’s and was a complete and total nerd. As one would guess, they were not friends in high school and Jenko picked on Schmidt.
Continuing along, it skips a few years ahead to when both men are going to school to become police officers. Jenko has all of the physical talents needed to successfully become a police officer, however he doesn’t have the brains for it. Schmidt, on the other hand, has all the brain power and smarts needed to become a police officer, yet is very lacking in the necessary physical abilities. That is where their friendship begins with Jenko asking the simple question of “do you want to be friends?”
From then on, they help each other out to graduate and become police officers. They are then assigned to do undercover work after an incident happens that gets them in a little trouble with their police chief. The men are sent to 21 Jump Street where they are assigned what they will be investigating. It turns out that they will be going undercover as high school students to try to investigate an ongoing drug dealing operation at their old alma mater.
Each man is given an identity based on how they really were previously in high school. Schmidt will go back and take all of the AP classes that he took and try to find out information from smart kids. Meanwhile, Jenko will be going back and taking all of the “easy” classes he took when he was in high school to hopefully find out information from the popular kids. However, when they get to the high school, they quickly find out the popularity dynamics have drastically changed from the time they were in high school until now.
This is when the comedy really kicks up and starts. There are many obstacles that Schmidt and Jenko will have to face, including accidentally trading identities. They have another shot at their high school careers, however they still have to stay focused and do the job that is required of them. There are twists and turns that are thrown at the men but in the end things are worked out–kind of. To get the full experience and understand “21 Jump Street,” this movie just has to be seen.
As a whole, this movie was very funny and entertaining. The audience was laughing throughout the entire movie. There really weren’t any boring parts that would make the movie not enjoyable. The jokes and ways in which the characters acted and interacted with each other were very funny. There were many times that little lines were put into the script that made the movie flow nicely. This movie is recommended for ages 17 and up since it is rated R. It is hilarious and also has a cute story line that shows the importance of friendship and staying true to oneself.
