The boys aren't bad.By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time," "Cinema Classics," and "On the Marquee"
"You are here because you some Justin Beaver, Miley Cirus lookin' muthas." Captain Dickson (Ice Cube)
It would be easy to discount 21 Jump Street as just a reworking of The Other Guys in which mismatched, underachieving neophyte cops fight the bad guys. But I can't do it because Schmidt (Jonah Hill), the smart but homely one, and Jenko (Channing Tatum), the cute but dumb one, are credible comedians and bromantic partners. It may not be much like the original TV show of the '80's, but it has an easy-going charm sparked by the two leads.
They're posing as high schoolers trying to bust a drug operation. While the set ups are stock, with the undercover cops avoiding detection by trying to be cool to join the dealers, the interaction between Schmidt and Jenko is effortlessly endearing. They may get mad at each other, but you know they would take a bullet for the other.
Hill underplays his usual nerdy persona, perhaps in sync with his slimmer physique, and Channing shows some subtle comic timing absent in almost all his previous films, most notably for me in The Eagle.
I must complain about the bloody ending, almost totally out of rhythm with the rest of the zany antics. Although such mayhem may be the result of drug dealing in any situation, here it seem unnecessary and shocking, making an uneasy segue to a celebration.
Yet that criticism does highlight the rest of the film's success in making a real action, bromantic comedy with likeable leads. I welcome this relief from the uneven Project X, whose teen party is surreal next to the more realistic one in this film.
I write "realistic" with irony on my mind because none of these proceedings is realistic; otherwise if it were like real life, it sure wouldn't be funny.
John DeSando co-hosts WCBE 90.5's It's Movie Time, Cinema Classics, and On the Marquee, which can be heard streaming at http://publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/ppr/index.shtml and on demand at http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/arts.artsmain Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.RR.com