21 Jump Street

Oh. My. Lord. How in the world did I forget to review "21 Jump Street"? The film that looked so bad that I vowed never to see it only to watch its tomatometer skyrocket. 'Well, damn,' I thought, 'I guess I have to see it now' and that was one of the greatest decisions I've made this year. If we aren't including that late night Taco Bell run of course.

"21 Jump Street" is based off the '80s tv show of the same name starring the perpetually good/rapey looking Johnny Depp. In the show, Depp was a cop who looked "young" so they sent him to high school to stop drug rings and other crimes that teenagers like to commit. Somehow they made it into an hour long drama. Lord knows how much crime had to be committed at that high school to make that show interesting enough for a tv show.

Well, Jonah Hill decided to re-create the show into the most hilarious movie of the year.

Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) are two under-performing buddy cops. Jenko is just dumb and doesn't know the Miranda Rights: "You have the right to uh...the right to suck my dick!" Schmidt just isn't very athletic. After they mess up on the job, their captain sends them to 21 Jump Street. A division run by a very sassy ice cube in which young-looking police officers go undercover at local high schools to, you guessed it, stop crimes. Schmidt and Jenko are sent to a local high school that is having a problem with a new synthetic drug that has been implicated in the overdose death of one student.

The writers have captured the change in high school so well and at the same time making the buddy cop routine seem fresh. Jenko walks around the school identifying different groups: jocks, nerds, goths, and then he gets to hipsters. Despite being in high school just 5ish years before, hipster is a new fad for him. And anyone who is in college or high school now can instantly identify the faux-50's style and increased emphasis on social awareness.

The movie is hilarious. And not dumb hilarious. It is actually hilarious. It is smart, it is clever and it keeps your attention from start to finish. I found myself doubled over trying to stop the giraffe noises coming out of my throat lest my friends judge me even more. This is one of the few movie that I actually enjoy Jonah Hill in and Channing Tatum should do comedy more often because it is right in his wheelhouse.

There are few R-rated comedies that I would show my parents. This may be one of them because I know they appreciate smart comedy. If you want to laugh, you won't be disappointed. Prepare to quote it for the rest of the day.

4 out of 4 stars

-Christopher O'Connell

P.S. Johnny Depp is in it.

P.S. #@$% YOU SCIENCE!