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Review: 21 Jump Street

Updated: Wednesday, March 21 2012, 09:07 PM CDT
By Ken Wilson, @KenTheCritic

Grade: A-

I don’t know why people are surprised that 21 Jump Street is a good movie.  It’s the best buddy comedy since Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson were Wedding Crashers.  However, this comedy is on a level of its own.  You can’t fake chemistry and the connection between Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum is magic.

21 Jump Street starts out with Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) in high school.  Schmidt is the dork who has no confidence around girls and Jenko is the jock who looks down on Schmidt.  It moves seven years to the present where they enter the police force.  They end up as partners and because of their youthful looks, they are assigned to go undercover at a high school to blow the top off of a drug unit that is supplying the students synthetic drugs.  They start taking classes and Schmidt becomes friends with one of the dealers (Dave Franco) and they think they are on their way until jealousy gets in the way. 

This movie is jam packed with action, cameos, surprises and hilarity.  It’s one of the best movies that has brought a television series to the silver screen.  It’s even good enough to have a sequel.  Ice Cube is entertaining playing their captain and provides many laughs.  If you are asking if it’s anything like the TV series of the late 80s, well even though Hill and Tatum don’t play the same characters from the show, it’s more like than you know. 


Ken The Critic’s Movie Review Grading Scale

A – Superb and solid; a movie that will be etched in your mind 10 years from now

B – Good movie, so good in fact that you would want to see it again before it’s out of the theaters; the story may drag in places

C – Average, entertaining at parts; you might want to wait and rent it

D – Lacks a lot from entertainment, plot, realism, development, etc.

F – Terrible and you will want to walk out of the movie; no redemptive qualities whatsoever  
Review: 21 Jump Street