Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 41 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 433 Ratings

  • Starring: Channing Tatum, Ice Cube, Jonah Hill
  • Summary: Schmidt and Jenko are more than ready to leave their adolescent problems behind. Joining the police force and the secret Jump Street unit, they use their youthful appearances to go undercover in a local high school. As they trade in their guns and badges for backpacks, Schmidt and Jenko risk their lives to investigate a violent and dangerous drug ring. But they find that high school is nothing like they left it just a few years earlier ­and neither expects that they will have to confront the terror and anxiety of being a teenager again and all the issues they thought they had left behind. (Columbia Pictures) Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 32 out of 41
  2. Negative: 0 out of 41
  1. Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    Mar 14, 2012
    91
    Underneath, 21 Jump Street is a riot of risks that pay off, the biggest of which might be handing Tatum funny business.
  2. Reviewed by: Betsy Sharkey
    Mar 16, 2012
    80
    Miller and Lord clearly understand the push-and-pull and hyper-competitiveness that make guy friendships both complex and stupid. That it comes to life so fully in 21 Jump Street is what gives the film an endearing, punch-you-in-the-arm-because-I-like-you-man charm.
  3. Reviewed by: Peter Bradshaw
    Mar 16, 2012
    80
    In its outrageous way, 21 Jump Street has real laughs.
  4. Reviewed by: James Mottram
    Mar 16, 2012
    60
    With Hill on co-scripting duties with Scott Pilgrim scribe Michael Bacall, 21 Jump Street was always going to live or die by its gags. Fortunately, it boasts that sweet-yet-dirty comedy that Hill revels in.

See all 41 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Negative: 17 out of 127
  1. This movie is really awesome, it's difficult to me to laugh watching a movie, but this movie, can do it ... And I'm very surprised, and I loved it... WATCH.. You're going to laugh since the start, until the end of the movie.. Collapse
  2. Loved it too as I laughed out loud. If you are looking for a fun popcorn movie this is it. Everyone did an outstanding job. Just don't take it too seriously and you will have lots of fun. Expand
  3. 21 Jump Street goes for a lot of laughs, and most of the gags hit their mark. The film satisfies as wish fulfillment; the chance to go to high school and gain acceptance from the in-crowd, and pass all the hard classes to feel smart. There's also an element of schadenfreude watching the once-popular Jenko--who was a jerk to Schmidt--get his comeuppance as he lives as a social outcast, while Schmidt gets much of the glory in their detective work. Where 21 Jump Street stumbles is in its storytelling. A subplot about Jenko's flirty chemistry teacher doesn't pay off because it gets dropped midway through (the conclusion, and footage during the end credits suggest there's more to it). It should also be mentioned that the action sequences aren't exciting, and a fight scene is shot too close in that blasted Shaky-Cam that's making its rounds as of late. However, such considerations are in some ways moot. 21 Jump Street is a class clown of a movie, just trying to get a laugh. Full review on my blog. Expand
  4. I hate R rated debauchery with no redeeming value. So why did I go see this, because every once in a while a movie like 40 Year Old Virgin or The Hangover come along that make you thing good comedy can come form this genre. 21 Jump Street is not that movie. Stay away. Expand

See all 127 User Reviews

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