Channing Tatum is Funny?

Within the first 15 minutes of 21 Jump Street, Channing Tatum was dry humping a perpetrator he had just caught, and I loved it.

I will admit I used to hate on Channing Tatum. I joined the throngs of people who would look up and the screen puzzled and say “why is this guy famous again?” In retrospect, I now see that most of those comments derived from the fact that Tatum’s voice generally sounds meatheadish, and frankly he looks like a meathead and plays roles where the general casting description is probably “meathead.”  I feel like I can make my final judgment now on him seeing him in three different genres, Stop-Loss (Drama), Dear John (Romance) and now 21 Jump Street (Comedy) and I think I kinda like the guy. Granted he still needs to beef up his resume but I was excited to see him do comedy, something that I think he is very good at and should do more of. My main conclusion is that the guys acts well with  his face, he can emote like a mother fucker, but it is his mumbling that people cannot seem to get past and I think they should.

21 Jump Street was quite good. Rather than try to remake the original TV show, it was more homage to the idea that made the show what it was. In many ways there was a lot of high school movie clichés, like that fact that we always need to have prom be the final stand-off/resolution of conflict and  start off with the standard naming and showing of the cliques. I must note that hipsters have now been introduced with the likes of the nerd, jocks and goths, of which Tatum’s characters says, “I don’t know what they are.” Turns out they are now the popular kids, smart and decked out in Urban Outfitters and vintage, the hipsters are the ones ruling the school these days which leaves Tatum’s former jock persona out of sort and Jonah Hill’s former nerd character, in. It is this reversal of fortune which brings the giggles and also works at the buddy angle that the film uses quite nicely.

For a quick recap for those that do not know the plot, Hill and Tatum play two immature police rookies who get sent to 21 Jump Street where a Korean church holds the secret headquarters of Ice T and his undercover cadets who get sent out to local High Schools to bust up small time to big time drug rings. Shenanigans ensue, Korean Jesus jokes are made as are jabs at teachers and even a few cameos happen. All in all, good times.

Hill and Tatum have good chemistry and it was fun to watch. Originally high school “enemies” they become best friends during their stint in the police academy and the bond is tested hilariously throughout the film. 21 Jump Street does not seem as long as it is. At 1 hour and 50 minutes it does run much longer than your standard comedy (sans Funny People, WTF 2 ½ hrs?) but it is all worth it. At the end they definitely made potential for a sequel, and actually I don’t think I would mind one, mostly because I want to see Channing Tatum awkwardly dry hump people.