Picture 21 jump streetThis is helped in large part by the casting of Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, who are not only individually funny but also rank as the best odd couple pairing since Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg You'd think such a drastic shift in tone would be fatal for this material, but in fact, it works fairly well. Although utilizing the exact same premise, this film adaptation has been transformed from a procedural drama into a raunchy comedy. Thankfully, that tidbit of information tells me everything I need to know.
Image of officer palone of 21 jump streetAccording to Wikipedia, it was a police drama in which young looking undercover police officers infiltrated high schools and colleges to investigate crimes. Full disclosure. I have not watched a single episode of the original TV series. No, I won't say who makes them. The filmmakers even work in two unexpected but very welcome cameo appearances.
The rest of the film is a surprisingly entertaining romp, one that has an emotional core despite being pervasively crude and at times highly violent. Fortunately, the filmmakers had the foresight to get this out of the way as quickly as possible. Nothing threatens to ruin a movie faster than winking at the audience in a showy display of self referential humor. 21 Jump Street treads on thin ice in an early scene where it's explained that the police department has revived a specialty division that started in the 1980s, that it's part of a trend of resurrecting and modernizing old programs due to a lack of original ideas and that they're hoping the public won't notice.
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