21 Jump Street
Writers: Michael Bacall and Jonah Hill
Directors: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller
Cast: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Brie Larson, Dave Franco, Rob Riggle, DeRay Davis, and Ice Cube
Release Dates: March 12, 2012 (South by Southwest Film Festival) and March 16, 2012 (United States)
Review written sometime in December 2014
Weird as the title may seem, the production it headlines is even weirder. The colours in 21 Jump Street are all bright and very much like those seen in patchwork on quilts, which might have been cinematographer Barry Peterson's effort at rescuing some of your good opinion for the movie. But well, it doesn't work at all.
The plot seems drugged into simplicity: Two erstwhile high-school classmates get jobs as police officers. After an arrest goes kaput owing to a technicality, both are transferred to a plain clothes undercover department. They are then ordered to go catch the supplier of a drug that caused the death of a high school student. Needless to say, those orders don't end with a nail-biting finish, really. Nor is there any suspense to help you chew your nails off completely either.
The script insists on including plenty of holes in its logic and going down a predictable bylane. A few minutes into this noisy brattish journey, it realizes its folly and yet doesn't mock itself nor retracts its steps and head somewhere else. Instead, the writers try to get very funny with their jokes. So, penises are referred to, a whole lot of Greek and Latin is incorporated into the dialogue every other minute, and lame clichés invite themselves over for lots of tea and biscuits and proceed to stay on for lunch and dinner.
Consequently, of the two-hour marathon, approximately ten minutes churn up a few laughs. The rest of it allows you to be distracted enough to plan a trip, pack your suitcases, argue with your mother, and then come back and pick up from where you left. Which is quite an indication of the plot: There isn't any!
Channing Tatum looks very handsome, is squeaky clean, and behaves very much like a porcelain doll. He seems to be shaped out of clay and plastered with just three faces: the smiling face, the laughing face, and the stony face. He also seems least bothered to emote and so, delivers a performance that's too shabby to be considered for a review. Comparatively, Jonah Hill is several degrees better to observe. He does act, brings in expressions associated with his character, and effectively dishes out a believable act. As the head of the undercover department, Ice Cube has nothing much to do except act tough, look tough, and expect you to be tough enough to swallow the rubbish he spews from his mouth. And that he does with clockwork monotony.
The supporting cast makes it a point to cook up some mediocre acting. Cardboard cutouts could not have done that better! And just when you thought the movie has made up its mind to proceed unceremoniously to a close, Johnny Depp turns up all out of nowhere, lights up the screen with a bunch of lines, and gets shot into oblivion. Which is exactly how a whole lot of potential and talent is consistently snuffed out of the movie.
Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller do not deviate from the slapstick style of putting the story together. Consequently, the movie is pert, has a snappy pace, but it loses your interest and attention as it zips from one cliché to another. The background score is appropriately hip hop and is cacophonic enough to be in tune with the noise on display.
Do not have anything to do with this movie then. Not if dead dialogues, tired storylines, and frustrating predictability do not make you bite your nails and sit at the edge of your sofa.
But, if all that slush does make your day, disregard whatever I have to say and go have a splendid time in this muck!
Writers: Michael Bacall and Jonah Hill
Directors: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller
Cast: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Brie Larson, Dave Franco, Rob Riggle, DeRay Davis, and Ice Cube
Release Dates: March 12, 2012 (South by Southwest Film Festival) and March 16, 2012 (United States)
Review written sometime in December 2014
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| Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum: I think we should abscond! |
The plot seems drugged into simplicity: Two erstwhile high-school classmates get jobs as police officers. After an arrest goes kaput owing to a technicality, both are transferred to a plain clothes undercover department. They are then ordered to go catch the supplier of a drug that caused the death of a high school student. Needless to say, those orders don't end with a nail-biting finish, really. Nor is there any suspense to help you chew your nails off completely either.
.png) |
| Oh that's where the script is?! We had better abscond! |
Consequently, of the two-hour marathon, approximately ten minutes churn up a few laughs. The rest of it allows you to be distracted enough to plan a trip, pack your suitcases, argue with your mother, and then come back and pick up from where you left. Which is quite an indication of the plot: There isn't any!
.png) |
| Carved out of wood for sure... |
.png) |
| Johnny Depp: You conned me into doing this? You die! |
Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller do not deviate from the slapstick style of putting the story together. Consequently, the movie is pert, has a snappy pace, but it loses your interest and attention as it zips from one cliché to another. The background score is appropriately hip hop and is cacophonic enough to be in tune with the noise on display.
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| Stills from 21 Jump Street: The script is slapped with a cliché too many. |
But, if all that slush does make your day, disregard whatever I have to say and go have a splendid time in this muck!
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