I've never seen the original show, but when I saw a poster for this movie, I breathed a sigh. Just another Hollywood remake, how shitty will that be? But perhaps I was too harsh. Remakes and reboots are getting good nowadays. I guess people aren't tolerating shit any more. So here we have 21 Jump Street, the buddy cop movie starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum.
Yes, an unusual pairing, and I must say that Tatum hasn't done much in my career to make me like him. But he's growing on me. Strangely, my esteem has risen for him from this movie as much as my esteem in Mark Wahlberg did with The Other Guys. I guess that's the experience I can most relate 21 Jump Street to. they're both buddy cop movies that didn't seem that great to me on paper, but actually ended up being pretty damn good.
Hill and Tatum make a good team, bouncing dialogue off each other with great comedic effect. This movie has definitely got that random improvised feel which makes for some great lines, and some of the elaborately set up jokes are awesome as well, especially the car chase halfway through. There is always a flipside to this kind of heavy improvised performance though, which is that things sometimes go on for far too long and the dialogue gets a bit silly. There are also plot points that don't feel too fleshed out compared to others, and they just seem kind of wooden in comparison to the improv heavy scenes.
Despite that, I had a good time. It's not a perfect movie, but 21 Jump Street is one of the better remakes I've seen in recent years. It has solid performances that actually changed my opinion of a couple of actors, and the jokes are witty and sharp. So if you haven't seen the original, go watch this. If you have, go watch this. I have no idea if you'll hate it, but I don't see a reason why you would.
My rating: 4/5
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