The Director Is In

21 Jump Street • directors Phil Lord & Chris Miller

I will admit right here, right now (on the internet no less), that I did not want to see this movie.  I remember thinking that it looked dumb, I was mad it was another stupid remake, I didn’t understand why the show was turned into a comedy and since I wasn’t hip on Hill or Tatum there was nothing to make me tune into this movie.  Then the review started to come in.  And I just kept hearing more and more great things.  Enough to make me thing that perhaps…perhaps I had misjudged a movie because of it’s trailer.  So I went.  And I watched.  And I laughed the hardest I’ve laughed all year.

What makes 21 Jump Street so incredible is that it’s a remake that not only accepts that remakes are over done, but that by committing completely to a concept and bending it just enough it can actually create something new - something original out of something that by definition shouldn’t be.  And that’s what everyone does.

The majority of the praise needs to go to Tatum and Hill as they were not only the stars but helped behind the scenes as well as producer and writer - but their performances were the perfect pieces this film needed.  They don’t look or act like high school students.  They don’t even really act like police officers.  But they committed to the absurdity and faced it and that caused them to fit perfectly.  They were a riot and I kind of hope a real life bromance came out of this.  Because their onscreen duo is the best I’ve seen since I Love You Man’s Paul Rudd and Jason Segel.