21 Jump Street

In terms of watching a film at the cinema, I guess the only thing better than seeing a great film is seeing a surprisingly great film. Joint directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller pulled that trick off a few years ago with the highly enjoyable Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs and they've repeated that success here. We start off with some US high school staples with Jenko (Channing Tatum, complete with classic wig) the jock and Schmidt (Jonah Hill) the Eminem obsessed nerd ("Yo, not so Slim Shady!"), before shooting forward a couple of years where they meet up again at a police training academy and form a mutual alliance to help each other graduate. A mix up with an arrest soon means the pair find themselves sent back to high school as undercover agents in order to discover the supplier of a new fangled drug doing the rounds. Then the fun and games really begin. Though it may not sound like much on paper, don't worry. This is hilarious stuff. Lord and Miller's expertise with visual gags (as showcased in Cloudy) is to the fore again and Michael Bacall's and Hill's script is consistently witty and, of course, very rude. What helps no end though is the chemistry between Hill and Tatum, which effortlessly goes from gentle teasing to full on bromance as the film progresses. Hill apparently badgered Tatum to accept the part so he clearly saw something there which not many others would have. Also its a clear sign that Tatum should stop messing around in dramatic roles (which he struggles in) and stick to comedy for a while. As this is only a very loose spin off from the TV series of the same name there aren't that many nods towards the source material. Hardly surprising really when you consider the title will mean little to anyone born after 1980 and when fans of the series are given their fix with a couple of cameos towards the end of the film they just seem out of place and, frankly, not very funny. In terms of the gags that do work though, this pretty much caters to all with its range of comedy going from (the now seemingly obligatory) crudity to some great dry gags for the sharper members of the audience. The only real downers are a somewhat dodgy joke concerning a "Korean Jesus" and that the film is a bit of a mess at the end where it smacks of a rush job, but this can hopefully be forgotten about as a sequel is already in the pipeline. Obviously you'd approach a follow-up with caution, but with Bacall, Hill and Tatum all on board (though no word on Lord and Miller's involvement) you'd hope for another fun ride. Though if Rob Zombie, the director Hill originally wanted for this, comes on board I'd shudder to think where it would end up. Finally, a big thumbs up to everyone involved for the brilliant idea in having the films best verbal gag set up by some mis-direction in the trailer. Smart stuff, indeed.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
I don't think anyone expected much from this, but Lord and Miller continue to look like ones to watch and once again the theory of great screenplay = great film continues to be gospel. Rating: 8/10.