If
you told me at the beginning of the year that one of my favorite comedies—nay,
movies—of 2012 would be a comedic take on an old television series about Johnny
Depp solving crimes while posing as a teenager, I would have kicked you in the
face. An overreaction? Perhaps, but there’s no overstating just how much I have
fallen in love with 21 Jump Street,
which stars Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum as a couple of rookie cops who are
assigned to work undercover at a local high school. It was an inspired choice
to turn it into a comedy in the first place, and it would have been incredibly
easy to go with a bunch of lame, simple jokes and get out with a passable
comedy. Instead, directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, writer Michael Bacall,
Hill and Tatum were able to turn it into a hilarious comedy that also has some things
to say about empty nostalgia, high school, and the dangers of going to school
band rehearsal while incredibly high on a dangerous drug.
21 Jump Street is incredibly
self-aware, but never to a crippling or irritating degree. (One of my favorite
touches, which I didn’t realize until the second viewing, was an acknowledgment
that the film’s second act was coming to an end.) Only in a select few
instances does it use this self-awareness as an excuse rather than a tool, but
overall this is a great comedy because joke after joke hits without fail. It’s
also slightly different from the pack because it’s joke-driven comedy with a plot rather than the rambling, mostly-improvised
lump that some comedies seem to be these days. While a lot of those movies are
funny, they sometimes lean too much on the Apatow formula. You can’t just coast
on the actors; you need some semblance of structure. 21 Jump Street feels refreshing because it plows forward with a
purpose and is still funny along the way. Also, Channing Tatum is really,
really good! I know, right?
The
other notable DVD/Blu-ray release this week is The Artist, which won the Best Picture Oscar despite the fact I
just now remembered it existed. It’s a pleasant movie with virtually nothing to
hate, but it’s also about as substantial as a napkin. I’m clearly not the only
one who feels this way, because I can’t recall the last time this movie was
ever brought up in conversation. Why the Academy (and others) chose this movie
as last year’s greatest cinematic achievement is beyond me, but if you haven’t
seen it yet I absolutely think it deserves a look.
Another
movie that I’ve completely forgotten about: Wrath
of the Titans. I saw the movie around when it came out, but it evaporated
so quickly from my mind that I could never bring myself to write a full review.
Essentially: it’s a bad movie with a couple cool effects shots. That’s all I
have to say about that.
Finally,
we also have two films that nobody saw, including me. And if they did see them, they sure weren’t
happy about them. They are the Eddie Murphy comedy A Thousand Words and Tarsem Singh’s family-friendly Snow White
adventure Mirror Mirror. I’m guessing
you have no real desire to see either of these, so just get 21 Jump Street and thank me later.
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