“Such a busy weekend. What with an MTG Social trip to see a friend in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat on Fri and then seeing Frank Turner and Dropkick Murphys for St Paddys day yesterday, I just barely had enough time to squeeze in a movie before tonight’s Urinetown rehearsal. My old roomie had been nagging me this week to hang out, so I figured the logical thing was to have her tag along for lunch and the movie. I dont think the two of us have ever laughed so hard together.
After the movie I felt the need to text my BFFF “”I just saw 21 Jump Street. It was kinda undeservingly amazing. Just thought you should know”” I got back a “”Yeah I saw it today too”” followed by a long back and forth discussing favorite scenes and jokes. Honestly, I should be getting ready to crawl into bed right now, but I dont wanna put this write up off any longer (it killed me that I didnt have time to do it before rehearsal). There was just so much I \m/ loved in this movie.
I only have a passing familiarity with the original 21 Jump Street. Two Black Fridays ago I picked up an 8 episode sampler DVD at Target for 2 bucks. Those are the only eps I’ve ever seen. Despite not really being a fan, I’ll admit that I still rolled my eyes and muttered an “”oh God why”” when I first heard about this reboot. Because srsly, how many \m/ tv shows and movies and such can you redo/reboot/reinvent. But you know what, if you hafta recycle-reduce-reuse, this is exactly the way to go. They took the basic premise, made a bunch of self referrential jokes, and showed they had the blessing of the original.
Screenplay writer Michael Bacall really knew what the \m/ he was doing. There’s so many overdone cliches in film that you kinda cant get around using anymore. So whenever one made its way into this film, he poked fun at it and made the cliche new and exciting again. Resisting the urge to give spoilery details, but there’s a big car chase scene that fully illustrates the point I’m trying to make. That and the lines delivered by the police chief who reassigns our boys were my favorite parts of the movie.
The other thing I really loved in the story was the popular kid/geek role reversal. Channing Tatum’s character was the big shot on campus back in his day. Jonah Hill the ignored dweeb. But things have changed so much since that time (blame \m/ Glee!) that in their second run Hill is running with the cool kids while Tatum is befriending the nerds. For one, I loved it because it was a different dynamic for the whole high school scene. But more importantly, I loved it because as the perpetual outcast in high school it felt like justice being served. I really cannot express how unbelievably \m/ happy it made me to see them fall into their switched roles. And it strangely fit both boys so well.
Yeah. The boys. *swoon*. I love and adore both of our leading men. I’d been worried that Jonah Hill would be following up his Oscar nominated Moneyball with another way too dumb comedy. I’d commented after The Sitter that he’d prolly peaked at Superbad. Well, Jonah got his groove back!! Hilarious, heartfelt, charismatic, smart performance. And my God is Channing Tatum as gorgeous as ever. There was this really hot jump -> shoot thing he did towards the end, where my jaw just dropped and I had to start fanning myself because it was overloading my lusty hormones. Before today, whenever I thought about Channing Tatum, my thought was always something along the lines of “”goregous as hell, but dumb as rocks””. Strangely, though, playing the relatively dumber character worked so well that I actually take back my “”dumb as rocks”” statement. Yeah, I dont quite get how that works in my brain either. I loved him though. Sweet, silly, sympathetic, and suave. On paper, Hill and Tatum seem such an odd pairing, but their bromantic chemistry was spot on perfect.
I saw a review that touted Jump Street as Dave Franco’s breakout film. Personally, I’ve been a fan of his for a while. Or at least it feels like it. I first spied him in his Funny or Die acting lessons with big bro James, but IMDB tells me the only other movie I’ve really noticed him in is Fright Night. I could have sworn there’d been others. Either way, I really am expecting greatness from this kid (and not just because of his big bro’s legacy) and I hope this movie does set him on his way. I also love love love Brie Larson. She’s just so sassy and sweet, keeping the popular girl from being an annoying stereotype.
Walking out of the theater, the roomie turns to me. “”You know how at lunch I was telling you that I thought Bridesmaids was the funniest movie ever? Yeah, I take that back”” While I may not go so far as to say funniest ever, I certainly agree with the general sentiment at least.
21 Jump Street – \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/