There will be spoilers. Don't read any farther if you don't want to know what happens in this movie.
When I first saw the ads for 21 Jump Street when it was in the theaters, I had two reactions. The first: Ah, good grief, not another remake. And the second was: This looks really dumb.
It was later that a trusted friend assured me that it was a funny movie and that I'd like it. With her assurances, I nearly rented it a few times, but couldn't quite bring myself to pay money to see another retread. I finally got my chance to watch it for free, and all I have to say is thank goodness I didn't shell any money out for this thing.
Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill play a couple of cops who are sent back to high school--undercover--to find who's selling dangerous designer drugs to students. Things go wrong immediately when they can't remember their covers and choose the fake ID that belongs to the other one.
And in a role reversal, nerd Schmidt (Jonah Hill) ends up being popular while former popular kid Jenko (Channing Tatum) ends up hanging out with the science geeks.
Most of the movie seems to have little to do with the plot. It seems more like sketches (meant to be humorous) loosely connected by the supposed plot of the film.
The grand conclusion ends up with Jenko and Schmidt having the bad guys show up with guns at the high school prom. One of the students is held hostage by a teacher in with the bad guys. A couple cops who are undercover with the adult drug dealers running the show blow their covers to save the situation and both get shot to death.
And despite all this, at the end of the movie, Jenko and Schmidt aren't thrown out of the police force or under arrest themselves for gross negligence. Nope, they're given another assignment--undercover at a college. Yeah. Right.
I was completely underwhelmed by this movie. It wasn't very funny although I will admit there were a few amusing moments. The problem was those moments were very few and very far between. I made it to the end because I was working on something else while I was doing it and because Channing Tatum is certainly good to look at.
There's really not much more to say about this. I suppose if your choice is between watching the 21 Jump Street movie and having root canal, the film is the better choice, but wow, it was lame.
Two thumbs down/1 star
