Movie Rental Review: 21 Jump Street

I had been told that this was a very funny, and people had highly recommended it to me while it was still in the theaters. However, I did not get the chance to actually go and see it, and so I wanted to make a point of seeing it once it was available for rental. This time, it was through pay-per-view.

            I did not really know what to expect, tell the truth. I remember the show, and remember that it was popular. However, I did not actually watch the show – and I mean, not even once that I can recall. So, there was no familiarity or anything like that with the show before seeing the movie. Some people were big fans, and remembered specifics, and perhaps knew more what to look for than I did.

            Still, this was a good movie. You do not need to know the original tv series in order to appreciate this one.

            It starts out in a high school, back in 2005. There is a chubby kid, Schmidt, with a wanna be Eminem look, and he approaches his neighbor, who also attends the high school. The neighbor is a girl, and she is very attractive – probably the most attractive girl in school. This chubby kid stops her in the hallway, intent on asking her out to the prom. But he stumbles, gets nervous. She begins to suspect that he is about to ask her out to the prom, and that is when we see another kid, Jenko, who is far more popular. He makes it far more difficult on Schmidt, explaining that the chubby kid is a loser, asking the most attractive girl out, with no real chance, and putting the girl in an awkward position.

            The Schmidt runs away. But Jenko is pulled aside by an adult, and told to go to the principal.

            Next thing, Jenko is being told that he still has failing grades, and he has been warned about this, apparently. There need to be ramifications, and so he is told that he cannot attend the prom. He is in shock, and he runs away, emotional.

            When we see him next, he is outside, tears in his eyes, trying to cope with the disappointment. He looks over and finds Schmidt, whom he has just humiliated, and they are clearly both in pain.

            Fast forward a few years until the next time we see them. They are in the police academy. It becomes clear that they both have their strengths and weaknesses. Schmidt is very smart, bright. He is, however, rather nerdy, and not at all athletic, being hopelessly overweight. He is also quite timid.

            Jenko, by contrast, is athletic, big and built solidly. He enjoys rugged good looks, and popularity comes naturally to him. Intelligence, however, does not. He is not very bright, and taking tests and remembering things is a problem for him.

            And so, they become the odd couple among the police force.

Before too long, however, it becomes clear that the level of professionalism is largely absent between them.

So, they are sent on a different kind of a task, in an underground operation.

The catch? It will be at a high school, to try and infiltrate an illegal, and deadly, drug operation.

So, they go back to high school. Jenko is excited to be going back to high school, figuring he had such a blast the first time, that it would be a ton of fun to go back again.

Schmidt also looks at it as possibly another opportunity, this time to get right what he got wrong the first time. He wants to be popular, accepted, and this looks like it is an opportunity to do just that. But there is trepidation on his end that he will not fit in, much like he did not fit in when he was really a high school student.

Of course, it does not go as either of them figure.

A lot has changed in the years since they have been in school.

What has changed makes the chubby kid suddenly in an unfamiliar place: not only accepted, but even outright cool.

On the flip side, Jenko, figuring he was a natural at being accepted and popular, finds himself being an outcast. No one seems to like or trust him, and every attempt that he makes fails utterly.

It is a role reversal, and one that neither of them expected.

But so attached do they get with the high school role, and their desires to move up the social ladder, that they lost sight of what they are really there as: underground police agents trying to gather information and, ultimately, to help make a bust that will break the illegal sales of a deadly new drug that has seen the death of one of the students.

Pretty soon, Schmidt finds himself in a complicated romantic entanglement with an attractive girl, unlike anything he ever had the privilege of having in his actual high school. Days. He is engaged in all sorts of activities, and finds tons of friends.

Jenko, in the meanwhile, finds that the kids really do not like or trust him. He finds himself in the unfamiliar role of outcast, and his jealousy  This division grows and grows, and they both completely lose sight of why they are there in the first place, and that they have a job to do.

This really was a pretty hilarious movie, although the humor tends to be a bit immature (no worries, so am I). There is even a bit of slapstick humor, and definitely some humorous sexual references.

Also, a guest appearance by some former actors of the original 21 Jump Street television series.

All in all, a good film that even had me in tears laughing at one point in particular. I would recommend this one!