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Schoolhouse Schlock

If there's one thing that has become more tiresome than the re-treads constantly rolling out of Hollywood, it's complaining about the re-treads constantly rolling out of Hollywood. And if there's one thing more tiresome than that, it's looking at the pop-culture past with affected ironic detachment (Michael Ian Black, we're looking in your general direction). "21 Jump Street" hits the trifecta.

For anyone who wasn't paying attention to the infant Fox network at the time, "21 Jump Street" was a TV show that ran from 1987 - 1991, a time when audiences were less jaded and still capable of suspension of disbelief. And for those of you who have been living under a rock in the decades since, it launched the careers of a young (but not that young) Johnny Depp and Peter DeLuise, who starred as police officers working undercover as high school students. Hey, for a generation conditioned to accept Stockard Channing and Luke Perry as teenagers, it didn't seem all that outrageous.

This time around, we have Jonah Hill ("Moneyball") and Channing Tatum ("The Eagle") pinning on the badges, then taking them off again to infiltrate a drug ring at a local high school. Of course, as should be obvious due to Mr. Hill's presence, it's not so much a remake (or "reimagining", or "re-launch", or "re-boot") as it is a spoof of the original concept. Except, it's not really even that. Instead, the screenplay, by Michael Bacall ("Project X") tries to have it both ways. There is a steady stream of winks at the audience to make sure that we know that they get the absurdity of the premise, some of which are actually quite funny ("You two need to report to 36 Jump Street. Wait. That doesn't sound right..."), but at the same time, the script spends too much time trying to get the audience to care about the characters. Unfortunately, the combination doesn't work. Mr. Hill, who has become something of a master at balancing absurdity and sympathy, manages well, but Mr. Tatum is in over his head attempting to walk this line. His comic timing is nearly non-existent, to say nothing of his acting, which has never been good. What he lacks in ability, however, he more than makes up for in determination. He clearly puts his whole heart into each gag and does manage to earn some good laughs through sheer force of will.

Setting the overall question of tone aside, the script also suffers from the overuse of bizarrely graphic curses. While lengthy and creative cussing makes perfect sense in something like "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World", another of Mr. Bacall's scripts, in "21 Jump Street" they just feel out of place, further adding to the feeling that pages from several different scripts were pasted together. Inevitably, the supporting cast suffers for it. The only two stand-out are Ice Cube ("Three Kings") , as the self-described angry black police captain, and Rob Riggle ("The Hangover"), but mostly because both are just doing stand-alone schtick. And, to be honest, it's pretty funny schtick.

While, "21 Jump Street" can frequently seem like a bunch of scenes looking for a movie there are some genuine laughs here, as long as you are willing to sit through the 109 minutes of running time to find them. On the whole, if you go in expecting little, you will get a little more than you expected.