Flipping through Apple TV on Saturday night, we found that there was not much in the popular movie offering with a rating higher than 50% on the Tomatometer that we hadn’t already seen. When that happens, there are two choices: Go to the Foreign genre, where 90% plus movies proliferate. But you need to be in the mood to read subtitles. And we were not. Or, the second option is go to the Comedy genre and pick something “stupid.”
We picked 21 Jump Street. Jonah Hill is usually funny and generally delivers, albeit in a crude and slapsticky sort of way.
21 Jump Street is about two cops, Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum), who just graduated from the police academy. Jenko was the jock in high school, with limited intellectual powers, and Schmidt was the nerd. While enemies in high school, they became friends in the police force and were assigned to be partners on the bicycle patrol. Since they looked young, they were eventually assigned to be undercover as high school students to uncover a drug ring.
Reminiscent of The Internship, where two unemployed “old guys” get internships at Google, Schmidt and Jenko show up in high school seven years after their own graduation, baby-faced enough to pass unnoticed, sort of. They realize very quickly that seven years in teenage time is a lifetime on the coolness meter, and little things like double-strapping or single-strapping backpacks makes a huge difference in the chase after girls.
21 Jump Street is a raunchy comedy that had us laughing out loud and entertained us well for a couple of hours, but had absolutely no redeeming value otherwise. It was decent entertainment. The last scene set it up perfectly for a sequel.
Little did we know as we said that when the credits rolled that right now, 22 Jump Street is out “on the street.” And no, we won’t be rushing to the theaters to spend $10.50 each. We’ll wait a year or so to get it for $4.99 on Apple on a night when there is nothing better to watch and we’re not in the mood for of film of naked French teenagers with subtitles.
Rating: **
