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Saturday, April 20, 2024
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HOLLYWOOD 21 JUMP STREET
EDITOR'S PICK
Rating: ***1/2
Filmmaking is a complex art where the same elements can mix up in different ways
to make a completely different film. A case in point is 21 Jump
Street.
Its story is your typical and average `Buddy flick` but has been executed in a
manner that is funny, irreverent, self-deprecating and laugh-riot to boot. That
this hilarious caper is based on a late 1990s TV series which was more a moral,
crime tale for teens than a funny one, is something that becomes as funny as the
movie.
Schmidt (Hill) and Janko (Tatum) are as opposites as they get. The former is
smart, but the latter is popular and good in sports.
At police academy, they team up to help each other pass. Joining the force, they
become part of `21 Jump Street` an undercover operation where young police
officers infiltrate schools to rid them of menace.
They are assigned to a high school and told to find the source of a new drug
that is doing the rounds. However, their re-entry into school and their mission
would be tougher than they had ever imagined.
Films like this work mainly on one thing - their gags. Surprisingly this one
manages to get its dose of original gags and slapstick comedy right enough to
have you laughing through its duration.
Those who had seen the series, that launched Johnny Depp (who makes a cameo in
this film), would remember it as a morality tale for teenagers (there was even a
message at the end by the cast like in Indian show Hum Log).
To turn that into a laugh-riot, would obviously have taken a lot of efforts.
Hats off to the directorial team of Phil Lord and Chris Miller who get it just
right.
Aiding them is the cast. Lead pair of Tanning and Hill get their
male-buddy-chemistry just about right. They are not on the face, and neither too
cliched. It is obvious that the two were having fun during the shoot and that
translates into audiences having fun in the theatre.
The rest of the cast, especially the high school kids are immaculately cast as
well. It observes and makes fun of high school teens today and their peculiar
habits. For example, where they rarely talk on their mobile phone while being
perennially busy texting.
Those old enough would remember the day when business was handled by calling
someone.
It`s also got the cliche of almost every high school film of the 1980s and 1990s
- right from the nerdy but studious gang to the big deal and limo at prom night.
It twists those cliches and plays with them enough for it to make both a tribute
and satire of it.
Though 21 Jump Street does not break any new ground in comedy, it
tills the existing ground to give you a uproarious crop.
In the action-comedy 21 Jump Street, Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) are more than ready to leave their adolescent problems behind. Joining the police force and the secret Jump Street unit, they use their youthful appearances to go undercover in a local high school. As they trade in their guns and badges for backpacks, Schmidt and Jenko risk their lives to investigate a violent and dangerous drug ring. But they find that high school is nothing like they left it just a few years earlier – and neither expects that they will have to confront the terror and anxiety of being a teenager again and all the issues they thought they had left behind.
