BEFORE: My original plan was to be on vacation right about now - my wife wanted to delay our trip to April because she thought it might snow in March, and our plane wouldn't be able to take off. "That's crazy," I said, "thanks to global warming it won't snow on March 18." Well, yesterday was March 18 and it snowed in NYC, so I've got egg on my face. At least I conceded the point and had already agreed to delay our trip until April. So movie-watching will be suspended for 2 weeks in April.
Following up on the detective thread - I thought about watching "Sherlock Holmes 2" next, since he was the best fictional detective, but I'm keeping it real and modern and saving that one for another chain. Linking from "Ace Ventura", Jim Carrey also did a voice for "Horton Hears a Who", and so did Jonah Hill (last seen in "Get Him to the Greek")
THE PLOT: A pair of underachieving cops are sent back to a local high school to blend in and bring down a synthetic drug ring.
FOLLOW-UP TO: "The Other Guys" (Movie #880)
AFTER: I never watched the original "21 Jump Street" show, which ran from 1987 to 1991, since I was busy in college with little time for TV. So to me this sequel is about as necessary as a second celebrity diving show (Wait, we've got that?) but I was willing to give it a whirl. Re-inventing the concept as a comedy, which seems like a bad sign - a film that tries to be a comedy and an action film could easily represent neither genre well.
Initially this seemed like it was going to work - I liked the insights into modern high-school life, and how it's come 180 degrees from the environment of the past. Jocks are still jocks, goths are still goths, but now it's hip to be square and succeed academically. Nerds are somehow cool, and caring about the environment is in, and deriding something by calling it "gay" is unheard of. Further adding to the confusion, one character can't remember his undercover name, so the two identities get switched. The ex-nerd then has to do track and drama club, and the ex-jock has to take AP chemistry. Meaning everyone's out of their comfort zone, including the audience.
When you're 25, you think you know everything, and if you could only go back to high-school, man, you'd show them (for starters, I'd talk to more girls). The identity switch prevents the characters from succeeding the way they want to, so they have to find another way, but there are just too many reversals here. Too many attempts to be unconventional, and the plot just ends up disjointed. Young men pretending to be teens, then they have to pretend to be each other, then on top of THAT they have to pretend to not be high on drugs when they're stoned - it's too much.
There's a fallacy here, one also seen in the "Ace Ventura" films, and it's the idea that the lead characters can be idiots, and still somehow also good at what they do when it counts. Maybe it's the theory that if they keep failing in spectacular fashion, they somehow loop around to success, and that's just not how things work. But a film about cops doing their job well would be boring, and a film about cops doing poorly would just be sad - so this is an attempt to cover both bases and still be funny.
I can see the friendship between the two cops getting tested by the unusual situations, but the end result is that they can't accomplish anything without screaming at each other, and this gets grating after a while. Every single point is stated, debated, then over-stated, and argued over again. Geez, guys, just get married already.
NITPICK POINT: When one cop can't remember his cover identity, and the names are about to get switched, there's a simple fix: the cop that CAN remember who's supposed to be who could just point at the other one and say, "No, he's Doug." I can think of no reason why this didn't happen. Or just have him say "We were just messing with you, he's Doug." Didn't the department issue them fake IDs, which would have settled this in a heartbeat? OK, fine, suffer for weeks in the wrong classes.
NITPICK POINT #2: It's clearly stated that there's only about a month left in the school year. Why would the drama club hold auditions for a play so close to graduation? With prom and everything coming up, wouldn't they have started rehearsals much earlier? (Yes, I was in the drama club, what of it?)
NITPICK POINT #3: It's obviously for comic effect, but would a drug dealer really demand that his client use the product in front of him? He got paid, why would he care? If the drug's effects are so severe, someone tripping at school would draw too much attention, and that could be traced back to him. Wouldn't he prefer that students take the drug at home or at a party, somewhere off school grounds?
Also starring Channing Tatum (last seen in "The Dilemma"), Ice Cube (last seen in "Three Kings"), Dave Franco (last seen in "Greenberg"), Brie Larson, Rob Riggle (last seen in "Furry Vengeance"), Chris Parnell (last seen in "The Five-Year Engagement"), Ellie Kemper (last seen in "Bridesmaids"), with cameos from Nick Offerman, Johnny Depp (last seen in "Once Upon a Time in Mexico"), Holly Robinson Peete.
RATING: 5 out of 10 hall passes
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