Weekly Movie #12

21 Jump Street
Directors: Phil Lord and Chris Miller
Cast: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube, Brie Larson
Released: March 16, 2012
Viewed in theaters: March 20, 2012

Only 40 more movies to go! Oh, boy... Luckily this movie was MUCH better than the one I saw last week (Safe House). I wasn't bored once and didn't have to resort to counting the chairs in the front row and the ceiling tiles like I did when I saw last week's movie. (No, really, I did...)

I wasn't very familiar with the TV show this film is based on. All I knew is that it's from the '80s and Johnny Depp was in it. I had no idea what the premise was, though.

Hill and Tatum play rookie cops  Schmidt and Jenko who went to high school together seven years prior, but never really hung out together because they were total opposites in school. Schmidt was the dork obsessed with Eminem ("Not so Slim Shady") who was in all the AP classes and couldn't get a date to prom and Jenko was the cool, athletic guy who didn't apply himself. While training to become cops, they become friends so Schmidt can help Jenko with the academic portions and Jenko can help Schmidt with the athletic portions.

Because of their youthful appearances (Hill is 28 and Tatum is 31 and while Hill looks like he could possibly pass for a high school student, Tatum is a little more hard to believe, and the movie does make fun of that throughout), they are assigned by Ice Cube's hilarious screaming captain to go undercover as high school students to try to find out where this new drug called H.F.S. (you'll laugh when you find out what it stands for) is being supplied from.

In a weird role reversal (blame it on Glee! Hee!) Schmidt becomes the cool one while Jenko is stuck hanging with the nerds. They accidently switch identities so Schmidt is in Jenko's easy classes while Jenko is taking all these AP classes. They make friends with the kid who is dealing the drugs and try to get in deeper with him to become part of the drug ring.

I love the scene where Schmidt calls Brie Larson's character, Molly, and she's like, "Everyone usually texts me." Schmidt went to high school in 2005 and weren't people texting back then? I'm pretty sure they were...oh, well it still made me laugh. I also like when Eric (the drug dealer) starts to get suspicious of Schmidt and Jenko questioning their taste in music and how Jenko looks like he went through puberty when he was really young.

This movie is very, very funny and trust me, you want to see this before anyone can spoil anything for you because there's a great scene where you do not want to be spoiled...

About a year ago I wrote reviews for ten teen movies that came out when I was a teenager and for each one I had a checklist with the required scenes for a teen movie. I shall do the same one for this one. (And I reviewed Never Been Kissed which is also about someone going undercover as a high school student.)

Is there a party scene? Affirmative

Is there a prom scene? Affirmative 

Is there a football scene? Negative 

Is there a make over scene? Affirmative - obviously Schmidt and Jenko have to dress like high school students. LOL I love the scene where Jenko tells Schmidt to "one strap it", and when they get to school everyone  has both straps over their shoulders. I was a two strapper because my backpack got so heavy with all my books 

Is there a scene where all the different high school cliques are being shown?Affirmative - they make a joke of them spotting the jocks and the nerds, then start to see other cliques and they have NO clue what group they belong to! 

Was this movie spoofed in Not Another Teen Movie? Well, obviously not since that movie came out in 2001 and this one was released, like, a week ago.

Any movie that plays "The Graduation Song" - Ha, love that song is still getting love after 12 years!- is all right with me. The most unbelieveable thing about that this movie is that high school students would know who Fred Savage and The Wonder Years is. You'll have to watch the movie to find out what I'm talking about!