sábado, 5 de mayo de 2012

Scene City #13: 21 Jump Street (Lord, Miller, 2012)


Some remember their high school years fondly; the friendships, the parties, the overall sense of teen hedonism and irresponsible mischief. I, however, am not too fond of it; as an ineffectual, anti social geek, my hours were spent usually in front of a screen (watching movies, TV shows or playing video games).
But the more I think about it the more I am convinced that it would, actually, be fun to go back to high school (with my adult sensibilities in high gear, of course). “21 Jump Street” presents us with the two classic stereotypes, the nerd and the jock, and does something interesting; it swaps roles on their adult life so the nerd gets to enjoy popularity while the jock gets to appreciate geekdom.
The movie is yet another big-screen adaptation of an old TV series (starring a young Johnny Depp apparently; I never saw it). The reason why many of these adaptations fail miserably is because they can’t distinguish the fine line between homage and parody (and that’s why camp can’t be reproduced, but merely mirrored or made fun of). “21 Jump Street”, however, works mainly because it is a very, very funny movie (something I did not expect based on its trailers). It plays like a usual Jonah Hill vehicle (think of “Superbad” meets cop-buddy bromance) but it gives the supporting cast laugh-out-loud moments that almost steal the show. Just wait until you see Ice Cube playing the archetypical angry black dude.
There’s some good acting in the film; the surprise being Channing Tatum, who’s usually as stiff and charismatic as a wood plank but here shows real comedic timing and good chemistry with Hill. I’m surprised at how much I enjoyed “21 Jump Street”. It’s a comedy filled with drugs, booze and dick jokes that’s actually really funny. In other words, it’s a riot.


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