1) 21 Jump Street
Anyone who has seen This Is The End knows that Channing Tatum has developed something of a rapport with the rising group of comedians responsible for giving us movies like Superbad and Pineapple Express. But at first, it was unclear whether he would have any chemistry with the established comic talent of Jonah Hill. The result was a pleasant surprise: the two ended up being as much fun to watch on the movie screen as they were in their press appearances leading up to the film’s release. The fact that Hill seems to get along extremely well with his co-stars in virtually every movie, from Tatum to Brad Pitt after Moneyball, makes his douchey persona in This Is The End even better.
I guess my main issue with 21 Jump Street, as enjoyable and funny as it was, was that it took this team of opposites and fell into essentially the same notes as any other duo consisting of a nerd and a jock. They made a bit of a half measure toward subverting these tropes, showing that today’s generation almost looks on the nerd more favorably, but in the end, the movie’s attitude remains that this is a weird, perhaps even regrettable or at least unnatural cultural phase, and the jock will always end up banging the teacher.
It’s cause for at least a little bit of ambivalence about Tatum’s comedic ability; it’d be nice to see him find an angle to work against his type of the hunky brute (dancing well doesn’t quite cut it), so that he can be as parodical as Hill and Rogen and Franco and the rest.
