I said Jump! Down on Jump Street!

[sinkwriter]

Your friends will be there when your back is to the wall,
You'll find you'll need us 'cause there's no one else to call..."

I refuse to go see the new 21 Jump Street movie.

You'd think I'd be all over it, given how dedicatedly I watched the TV show, way back when.

But it's because I watched the TV show that I object so much to the approach of this new film. I watched some commercial clips for it, and it seems nothing like the TV show. In a bad way.

Yeah, the premise is the same: young-looking cops forced to go back to high school to do undercover work. Yeah, there was an element of cheese to the original series, too.

But it seems like this new movie is making it a huge joke.

"You have the right to remain an attorney..."

The lead character doesn't even know how to recite Miranda rights to the dude he's arresting? Seriously?!

That is what bothers me the most. It seems that they're dumbing down the characters in the name of 'comedy.'

On the TV show the four undercover cops weren't inept at their jobs. They were excellent cops who couldn't cut it in the normal circuit because they looked so young. No one -- especially the badass perpetrators -- took them seriously.

But they were still good at what they do. In fact, the main character Tom Hanson was so serious about his job, that issue became one of the running jokes, that he needed to loosen up or he wouldn't be able to pull off playing a teenager during his undercover work. Just because he had a baby face didn't mean he could automatically play a kid. He had to relearn what it meant to be a teenager when so much in society has changed since he was that age, 10 years or so ago.

The TV show was still funny, sometimes very funny, but at the same time there was a layer of seriousness to it that I liked a lot.

For this new film to play off the lead characters like they're bumbling idiots -- as cops and as 'teenagers' -- that really annoys the crap out of me.

So I won't be watching this movie. I'd rather revisit my Jump Street DVDs. At least those have Johnny Depp and Steven Williams (for the 'Philes fans on my f-list, he played the mysterious and dangerous X from The X-Files, as if you didn't already know).

Let me say that again.

Johnny Depp.

Enough said.

Comments

[moonprincessnat.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree with you. The movie looks awful. I hate when they make movies out of beloved TV shows that aren't true to the shows--I Spy, Starsky & Hutch, Bewitched--this is just one more in the list. *sigh*

[sinkwriter.livejournal.com]

*joins you in sighing heavily*

It's like they didn't really even stop to consider what made the original so interesting. They just went with whatever they wanted and stuck the label '21 Jump Street' on it because it's close enough in premise, or something.

*sighs again*

[bardsmaid.livejournal.com]

I totally agree. I've seen promos for the movie, too, and my reaction was, "What on earth have they done to this show??? And why?" Though I guess the 'why' is obvious; they're trying to appeal to their $ucce$$-inducing male 18-45 demographic. Boo!

The original was such a good show, too. I think, more than anything, the twisting of this show's plot for the big screen says something (and not something good) about those running movie studios, and the tendency these days to only give people what's already shown to be profitable. Which, of course, eliminates the possibility of people encountering something new and different, excellently done and--dare I say it--thought-provoking. Like, say, The X-Files, Or M*A*S*H. Or West Wing.

Hopefully something will come along to break this pathetic pattern.

[bardsmaid.livejournal.com]

Oh, and yes: Johnny Depp.

I love his acting, and the fact that he completely submerges himself into the roles he plays, and he becomes those people. The movies he's in never become "Johnny Depp vehicles". Yay for that!

[sinkwriter.livejournal.com]

Hopefully something will come along to break this pathetic pattern.

Apparently not anytime soon. I just saw a news headline for Variety that says a sequel is already being planned for 21 Jump Street.

*eyeroll and heavy sigh*

Alas... the 'pathetic pattern' doesn't look like it will broken anytime soon.

:(

But -- surprise, surprise -- I share your love of all things thought-provoking, new, different and well done. Hopefully we won't have to wait forever for the next unusual potential creative work like The X-Files or The West Wing or M*A*S*H*.

*keeps fingers crossed and hopes hard*