22 Jump Street Director: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller
Screenwriters: Michael Bacall, Oren Uziel, Rodney Rothman
Cast: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube, Amber Stevens, Jillian Bell, Nick Offerman, Rob Riggle, Dave Franco Columbia Pictures | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Rated R | 112 Minutes
Release Date: June 13, 2013
“Hey! Stop fuckin’ with Korean Jesus. He ain’t got time for yo problems! He’s busy… with Korean shit!”– Ice Cube, 21 Jump Street
Back in 2008, when Columbia Pictures announced they were developing a film adaptation of 21 Jump Street, I was wracked with cynicism. “Really?” I asked incredulously. “Because Starsky & Hutch and Bewitched did so well?” My cynical nerd-brain jumped immediately to the place it so often does these days, “Just what we need, another reboot that no one asked for!”
I was pleasantly surprised, however, to discover that this revamp wasn’t a gritty, self-serious take like Michael Mann’s Miami Vice, but rather an uproarious action-comedy by the directing duo of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. And I certainly wasn’t expecting 21 Jump Street to be such a smart, self-reflexive satire of ’80s buddy cop flicks and teen movie tropes.
Students of the Unusual™ comic cover used with permission of 3BoysProductions
The Mercuri Bros.™ comic cover used with permission of Prodigal Son Press