by Joseph Tiberia

Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum might be my new favorite comedy duo in quite some time.  Much like Will Farrell and John C. Riley, they both get the comedy AND create timeless characters that make you wish were real.

21 Jump Street is about Morton Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Greg Jenko (Channing Tatum), former classmates who meet again at police academy. Schmidt was a smart misfit while Jenko was a dim-witted jock. They join forces to help each other out and become partners after they graduate, however, after not reciting the Miranda rights to a suspect, they are reassigned to 21 Jump Street.

They are introduced to Captain Dickson (Ice Cube) who explains the division specializes in infiltrating high schools and were selected because of their young appearances. They are put into undercover where they realize many things in high school have changed since they were students. They start to investigate the school for a new drug that killed one of the students before it starts to spread.

Unlike the show, which talked about the serious issues of the era (AIDS or Racial Tension), the film takes us on a comedic journey about what its like to be able to go back to high school and redo the experience again knowing what lies beyond high school and college.

You need to be a fan of dumb comedies and an appreciation for Jonah Hill’s comedy to truly enjoy this movie. My grandmother saw this film because it was the only available movie to see for her and she hated it.  I don’t blame her for not getting the humor Jonah Hill is for the new generation of kids but at the same time pay tribute to the original series (which I am a fan) and those who remember the show will see many moments from the series in the film.

Even though there are amazingly dumb moments in the film, the characters never truly become one dimensional; both characters transform into a better form than what they originally started out in the film. This is where it became so refreshing for me as both a film reviewer and audience member.

Often Hollywood makes films where the characters don’t change in the end and this kind of insults my intelligence level, why can’t we have more films where an “arc” has happened with the characters and not just a simple straight line across the board? The film was a great “Where’s Waldo” game of actors, this helped reassure me while watching the film that script must have been written well enough to get this many actors involved.

The hard R rating is appropriate for the film; many F bombs are dropped in the film especially by both lead actors and amazingly by Ice Cube. There are some nude scenes that are very raunchy however, they are very brief. The best moments in the film are defiantly when Tatum and Hill are just bouncing off one another in an almost spar of comedic words that will definitely leave you in stitches.

I recommend leaving the kids at home with a sitter and going out to see this film.  21 Jump Street possibly has kicked off the year in the best way possible, we have one of the greatest year’s of cinema about to happen with not only 3 top highly anticipated comic book movies coming out (Avengers, The Amazing Spider-man, and The Dark Knight Rises) also we have new films from Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, Rian Johnson, Wes Anderson, Tony Scott, and these are just naming a few of the big name releases.

Joseph S. Tiberia is a recent graduate of Adelphi University with a major in Video/Film Production. He has interned for Half Yard Production and NYC’s Face-Off comedy troupe in the past. He specializes in cinematography freelance work. Joseph is also a movie reviewer for Totalfilmnerd.com. His favorite film of all time is A BitterSweet Life.