21 Jump Street
I expected throwaway buddy-cop nonsense and ended up pleasantly surprised. This reboot of 21 Jump Street isn’t just watchable, it’s a self-aware comedy that knows exactly what it is and and doesn’t try to be anything more. That honesty gives it a looseness that most action comedies never manage.
Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill make an unlikely but likeable pair, playing off Tatum’s thick-as-two-planks bravado against Hill’s more bookish awkwardness. The whole undercover-cops-back-in-High-School premise at ridiculous, and the film wisely leans into that instead of pretending it could ever make sense. It isn’t a spoof in the vein of The Naked Gun, but a self-aware send-up that plays the genre straight while winking at its absurdities. The gags are broad, but sharper than you’d think, with a nice link in skewering reboots, sequels and its own flimsy premise.
It’s not trying to be clever or important, just funny—and it succeeds. A daft idea, done with a wink, and all the better for it.
Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill make an unlikely but likeable pair, playing off Tatum’s thick-as-two-planks bravado against Hill’s more bookish awkwardness. The whole undercover-cops-back-in-High-School premise at ridiculous, and the film wisely leans into that instead of pretending it could ever make sense. It isn’t a spoof in the vein of The Naked Gun, but a self-aware send-up that plays the genre straight while winking at its absurdities. The gags are broad, but sharper than you’d think, with a nice link in skewering reboots, sequels and its own flimsy premise.
It’s not trying to be clever or important, just funny—and it succeeds. A daft idea, done with a wink, and all the better for it.
Mini Review: 21 Jump Street turns out sharper than expected. Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum make a likeable odd couple in this reboot that leans into the absurdity of cops going undercover in a High School. Not spoof-level mayhem, but a self-aware send-up with broad gags, sly digs at reboots, sequels and its own flimsy premise. Daft, funny, and better than it has any right to be.
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