Comedies these days are often hit-and-miss. You have movies like Project X, a movie that makes no effort to befriend it’s audience and instead alienates it by doing some of the most heinous things and saying some very ridiculous words, although then again, some people like that kind of stuff. I bring this film up because it shares the same screenwriter(Michael Bacall), as this week’s comedy, 21 Jump Street, which, at it’s core, isn’t very similar to the other film at all.21 Jump Streetis a remake of that old TV show from the 80’s that aired on Fox, you know, the one that launched that guy Johnny Depp’s career. It centers on two doofus cops, Schmidt(Jonah Hill) and Jenko(Channing Tatum, or “C-Tates” as he’s called these days), who, as a form of punishment, and due to them looking like high schoolers, get sent to a special division of the Police force: 21 Jump Street. If you haven’t caught on by now, 21 Jump Street is the codename of a mission where these cops must infiltrate a high school in order to stop a drug ring from spreading to other high schools.There are a bevy of jokes to be found in this movie, that range from absurd sight gags(look for the billboards), humor involving the side effects of drugs, and, of course, references to the original show.
There are some really great pop culture references, especially to the high schoolers of our generation, and they’re actually more or less spot on (In one scene, Channing Tatum slams Glee for making high school seem very happy.).

All of the jokes in this movie somehow stick their landing. This is probably helped by the genius performances given by this great cast. Jonah Hill, who co-wrote the script alongside Bacall, is no stranger to vulgar humor, something which this film does a great job of displaying, and his punchlines are great. Channing Tatum is very suprising here, having just come off of the pseudo sequel to The Notebook, The Vow. He plays dumb really well, and as a result, he gets some of the best laughs in the whole movie. Rob Riggle, Dave Franco(James’ little brother) and even Ice Cube all have supporting roles in this movie, and are all hilarious, each character gets their own unique traits to carry throughout the movie. There are even some very witty cameos, which I won’t spoil here.

Maybe the only bad thing about this movie is that it tries very hard to establish drama between the characters mid-movie, which, given all the jokes, just doesn’t seem all that necessary.

Alas, this comedy is a hit, and not a miss. There are a variety of jokes to be found here, mostly inappropriate, but that hasn’t stopped teenagers from seeing that kind of stuff before. If given the opportunity to choose between Project X and 21 Jump Street, I think it’s safe to go with the funnier, smarter movie of the two.

Critics Review(according to Rottentomatoes.com): 85%
My Score: 8/10