21 Jump Street - Movie Review

Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller
Screenplay by Michael Bacall, story by Jonah Hill and Michael Bacall.
Running Time: 109 minutes (1h, 49 mins.)
Rated R (for crude and sexual content, pervasive language, drug material, teen drinking and some violence).
Distributor: Sony (Columbia Pictures)/MGM

...And the '80's remakes/reboots/throwbacks continue. We had many last year and it seems like the trend ain't gonna stop this year. 21 Jump Street, a remake of the late-80's television series about a group of police officers who could pass as teenagers with their youthful appearances and go undercover to investigate crimes in high schools and colleges, kicks it off. What's funny about it is that it's a comedy based on a show that wasn't a comedy. Does that make it a spoof? No. This film is much funnier than your regular spoof.

This Jump Street has Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum (both who are also executive producers) playing former high school classmates who meet again at a police academy. Hill plays Schmidt, who was a nerd, and Tatum plays Jenko, who was the jock.  After an arrest gone awry, the two men are reassigned to a specialty division revived from the '80's at 21 Jump Street (hence the title). Schmidt and Jenko then go undercover as students in a local high school to investigate a drug ring and discover that high school isn't the same as it was for them a few years ago.

Straying away from its source material, 21 Jump Street is filled with raunchy humor and silliness all around, and also makes nods to the original show (even two of the show's original stars, Johnny Depp and Peter DeLuise have hilarious cameos in the film). Hill and Tatum are hilarious. Who would've thought the comedy pairing of these two would work the way it did? Like all of the other films he's done, Hill has great comedy timing, but Tatum is a bit of a surprise. He has plenty of comedic chops that might surprise those who see him as an actor who's just the romantic lead. Ice Cube is memorable in the screen time he has, Dave Franco still has good comedic chops as proven in his role on the last season of Scrubs, Brie Larson plays a nice love interest to Hill's character and Rob Riggle is funny, but not as funny as he usually is.

The directors are Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the duo behind Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. They inject some of the style that made Cloudy such a winner in here, most notably in a scene where Hill & Tatum's characters are on the new synthetic drugs. It's inventive, a little animated and of course, funny. Screenwriters Jonah Hill and Michael Bacall show their love for the pop culture of today's generation while at the same time making fun of it. Environmentalism, Glee, you name it, it's there.

We've had a few disappointing comedies so far this year, but 21 Jump Street is an exception, thankfully. It's raunchy, inventive, silly, over the top and laugh-out-loud hilarious. For those who expect a bad farce, prepare to be shocked. I give the film *** (3 stars).

Friends with Kids - Movie Review

Written and Directed by Jennifer Westfeldt
Running Time: 107 minutes (1h, 47 mins.)
Rated R (for sexual content and language).
Distributor: Lionsgate (Roadside Attractions)

Okay, so we already know the existance of friends with benefits (two friends (man and woman) who decide to have sex without any emotions or commitment involved) as seen in two films last year, No Strings Attached and Friends with Benefits. Of course, one was better than the other (*cough* Friends with Benefits), but this year we get a break from that and enter a new kind of relationship: friends with kids. Yeah, if you thought two friends having sex was weird, this is even weirder.

The movie follows Julie (Jennifer Westfeldt) and Jason (Adam Scott), a pair of best friends who notice the effect children have on the married couples they know: Missy & Ben (Kristen Wiig and Jon Hamm) and Leslie & Alex (Maya Rudolph and Chris O'Dowd). Despite being unmarried or in any kind of relationship, Julie and Jason decide to have a child of their own, but date other people.

I'll be honest: I didn't expect a lot from this movie. Sure, it reunites four of the cast members from Bridesmaids (Kristen Wiig, Jon Hamm, Chris O'Dowd, Maya Rudolph), but still a movie with a plot like this (despite how clever it may be) can only go so far, which was the same thing with NSA and FWB. I left this film a little surprised, however. The film is an honest and funny look at relationships and even parenting. I wouldn't exactly classify it as a romantic comedy, until the second half of the film. That's where it slowly becomes a little cliched, but I could forgive that.

Earnest performances from its ensemble cast help keep the movie going forward. Westfeldt and Scott, the main couple, have a lot of chemistry to work with, despite the times where I felt Scott just came off as a poor man's Paul Rudd. Rudolph and O'Dowd are good as well as Wiig and Hamm. You don't see Hamm's character much in the film, but he has a chance to break out in a scene with all the couples having dinner. Megan Fox and Edward Burns have roles in here as well with Burns playing Kurt, the man Julie begins dating, and Fox playing Maryjane, the girl Jason begins dating. Both are good. They don't overdo anything in the roles that they're given, so that's pretty good in my opinion.

Speaking of the roles they're given, the woman behind creating those roles is Westfeldt, who makes her directorial debut with this film. You might know her for her breakthrough role in Kissing Jessica Stein, which she co-wrote. Otherwise, you might've seen her in episodes of Grey's Anatomy and 24. Like Kissing Jessica Stein and another film she wrote and starred in, Ira and Abby, the film has plenty of sharp, witty dialogue. It's also good to point out that this is the third film from Westfeldt that Marcelo Zarvos has composed. However here, he has help from the band The 88. If you watch Community, you'll know who they are.

It's hard not to be even a bit impressed with Friends with Kids. It takes a smart, funny, witty and honest look at parenting and relationships. Only question is with the friends with benefits trend going on (of course, that's been going on for a while, even before those two movies), will Friends with Kids start a whole new trend of relationships? If more people see the film, we'll see. But right now, I give the film *** (3 stars).