21 Jump Street (Film #15)

When I started living with a boy, I had to learn a valuable lesson in cinematic compromise. I like movies like this:


And he likes ones like this:



And so we have learned to split the difference and watch movies like this:



Oh, wait, nevermind. 21 Jump Street is nothing like Steel Magnolias.

Sigh.

Look, this movie isn't Hitchcock. It's not Truffaut. It's barely "cinema." But it is funny. And even prissy bitches like me can appreciate that.

Even if you never watched a single episode of the original, you probably remember the premise (if you're over the age of 22 and you care about pop culture, like, at all). Youngish looking cops get put in an undercover squad where they can infiltrate high school crimes like drugs and gangs and bad Eminem hair.

I rarely if ever like either of the two male leads in anything - with the exception of Jonah Hill in Moneyball and Channing Tatum in a shirt. Oddly, I like them both here.

Like a lot.

And not in a "they're sooooo dreamy" kind of way. Because for most of the opening bits they look like this:


I mean more so for their chemistry - uneasy brothers who love each other, even when they sort of hate each other. Better, they're both believable as complete and utter screw ups, so there's that.

Plot-wise, there isn't so much to say - kids in high school taking crazy new drug and Tweedledee and Tweedledum need to figure out the source while psychologically reversing the damage accrued during their own high school experiences (For Tatum, not being able to go to prom; for Hill, well, look at the poor boy and just guess).

I laughed a lot at the stupidity and the tongue-in-cheek snarkiness of the film. And any movie with Johnny Depp (in the best cameo EVER that he shares poetically with Peter Deluise) is okay in my book. For me, it was all about bike cops, James Franco's little brother, the best tripped out Peter Pan audition ever, and a pretty impressive nerd makeover.

Good times were had by all.

But still mostly by Tim.