This stops streaming on Netflix today, hence my prioritization. All I knew going in was that it's a buddy cop action comedy based loosely on a same-name TV series -- a dramatic one, oddly enough. That didn't work well for Dragnet, but the movie and show of 21JS have the same moderately high IMDb rating. Hey, the central premise does sound ripe for laughs.
In an unspecified modern U.S. city, wimpy geek Morton Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and book-dumb jock Greg Jenko (Channing Tatum) become unlikely friends as twenty-something cops. After an abortive drug bust, they are assigned to the titular address, a Korean church appropriated by the undercover division. Captain Dickson (Ice Cube) orders them to pose as high school students to trace the source of a dangerous new drug among the students. Since the duo don't study enough in advance, they accidentally swap aliases, so Schmidt takes an acting class and run track while Jenko has to learn AP chemistry. This works out better than you'd think, but they have trouble coordinating with each other, and Dickson is losing what little patience he had with them.
Schmidt and Jenko vaguely remind me of Mike and Sully in Monsters University, but this is nothing so family-friendly. Despite some brawling, car crashes, and gun violence, the R rating is primarily for profuse swearing, stoner humor, and a brief teen sex scene. No, neither cop gets in on that, tho Schmidt cherishes making more quasi-romantic progress, with classmate Molly (Brie Larson), than he ever did as a genuine teen. There's even a "gag" that would give the Farrelly Brothers pause; if it had come before the resolution, I would've stopped watching.
OK, my main reason for having considered giving up on 21JS wasn't the lowbrow vulgarity. It was the sheer cringe factor of vicarious embarrassment. That wanes in Act 3, but Schmidt and Jenko never get professional, and reactions by other characters grow less and less credible to me. If anything, the formula becomes more obvious. Only a handful of moments surprised me.
The best aspect of 21JS is how it highlights rapid cultural shift. Schmidt and Jenko are only seven years out of high school, but within a minute, they discover various ways they're behind the times. Environmentalism is in, formerly bullied types are the alpha clique, nobody makes phone calls...and sure enough, the movie itself already feels slightly dated.
21JS doesn't have quite enough heart to make up for its taste in my book. I won't watch the sequel.
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