21 Jump Street
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: March 16, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
69
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
32
Mixed:
9
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumMar 14, 2012
Underneath, 21 Jump Street is a riot of risks that pay off, the biggest of which might be handing Tatum funny business. Read full review
90
Boxoffice MagazineSara Maria VizcarrondoMar 9, 2012
Jonah Hill is masterful at delivering an absurd story with so much sweetness, the nonsense ceases to get in the way. Read full review
88
New York PostKyle SmithMar 16, 2012
The funniest movie I've seen in more than a year. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisMar 15, 2012
We have lots of terminology for what happens when two male stars appear to have the platonic hots for each other. The genre is called bromance. The feelings are bromantic. The orientation is bromosexuality. What Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum have in 21 Jump Street scrambles, transcends, and explodes all of that. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezMar 15, 2012
This is the rare breed of Hollywood studio production that has the brash spirit of an independent picture and the sharp wit of a stand-up comic. Read full review
83
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallMar 14, 2012
This movie embraces everything that should make it lousy, calling out itself for aping the source's bad ideas then flipping the script with meta precision. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawMar 16, 2012
In its outrageous way, 21 Jump Street has real laughs. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyMar 16, 2012
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. Read full review
80
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottMar 16, 2012
Without a doubt, stupid, but it's willfully stupid, built in the comic style of "The Hangover" and "Due Date." Better yet, it also is genuinely funny, which is the point. Read full review
80
EmpireOlly RichardsMar 10, 2012
21 Jump Street has that "Anchorman" experimental-chaos vibe, with all the hit-and-miss moments that implies. It's completely lunatic and sort of a mess. It's also the funniest high-school comedy to come out of Hollywood in ages. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenMar 5, 2012
Not since Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg teamed up in "The Other Guys" has an onscreen pairing proved as comically rewarding as the inspired partnership of Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubMar 15, 2012
This film is even better if you come in with no spoilers and low expectations. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsMar 15, 2012
He's not in Mark Wahlberg's league, and 21 Jump Street isn't quite as funny as "The Other Guys," but by lampooning himself here, Tatum has bought himself a grace period to grow in. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigMar 15, 2012
The dialogue is fast-paced and full of pop-culture references. It all makes for an entertaining blend of buddy-cop action and irreverent teen-comedy satire. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayMar 15, 2012
Like Marilyn Monroe and Judy Holliday before him, Tatum is sublime at playing dumb (as a dim pretty boy, he seems to be channeling Brad Pitt in "Burn After Reading"), just as Hill shrewdly deploys his body mass for maximum physical comedy (even slimmed down, with an Oscar nomination under that tightened belt, he carries himself with a fat man's comically elephantine grace). Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversMar 15, 2012
Are we always still in high school in our heads? 21 Jump Street thinks so. And Hill and Tatum are just the crazy-ass comedy team to prove it. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyMar 15, 2012
Whatever you call 21 Jump Street, this potty-mouthed and drug-laced reimagining of the 1980s TV show has one of the highest laughs-per-minute ratios since the "Naked Gun" films. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMar 15, 2012
The drug humor in 21 Jump Street carries its own distinction, in that it's actually humor. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanMar 15, 2012
The movie has entertaining cameos, too, especially one by Holly Robinson Peete. At 23, she played Officer Judy Hoffs on the TV show. At 48, she plays … Officer Judy Hoffs, the oldest undercover cop on Jump Street. Absurd? Of course. But pretty funny, too. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertMar 14, 2012
One of the pleasures of 21 Jump Street is that the screenplay by Michael Bacall and Jonah Hill is happy to point out all of its improbabilities; the premise is preposterous to begin with, and they run with that. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineJaime N. ChristleyMar 12, 2012
Like many almost-great comedies, 21 Jump Street is frontloaded with the best go-for-broke gags and lines. Read full review
70
NPRAndrew LapinMar 19, 2012
The devil-may-care attitude is what makes 21 Jump Street so entertaining. Read full review
70
SlateDana StevensMar 16, 2012
21 Jump Street isn't a wild, fresh reinvention of the movie-cliché-spoofing genre - this isn't "Airplane!" we're talking about - but it's also not a drearily overfamiliar retread of it. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMar 15, 2012
It wants to be fun and, to a perhaps surprising extent, it is. Largely forsaking the sweet multiculturalism of the original for white-dude bromance, and completely abandoning earnest teenagers-in-crisis melodrama in favor of crude, aggressive comedy, this 21 Jump Street is an example of how formula-driven entertainment can succeed. Read full review
70
TimeRichard CorlissMar 15, 2012
The project loses traction toward the end, as the picture strains to become a full-blooded action film - the very thing it spends the rest of its time mocking. And yet 21 Jump Street earns my genial nod because of its limber, 120-IQ take on the whole notion of movie revivals. Read full review
70
MovielineStephanie ZacharekMar 15, 2012
For now, 21 Jump Street is a small puff of fresh air simply because it's not, like umpteen other releases coming down the pike, based on a comic-book series. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMar 14, 2012
Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller get nearly everything -- the tone, the self-referential nods to the shoe and the dead-solid-perfect surprises -- just right. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMar 5, 2012
It has a bad, slapstick first act but by midpoint becomes strangely compelling, tapping into the fantasy of reliving one's high-school years (which did a number on us all) and getting it right. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeMar 5, 2012
By casting Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum as fish-out-of-water buffoons, the irreverent result feels fresher than most '80s-show reboots, effectively flipping the address Johnny Depp made famous. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianShawn LevyMar 15, 2012
It's a deeply uneven film that can't decide if it's a satire, a joke, a thriller or a heartstring-tugger, and in dithering in its tone and its aims it ultimately turns out to be none of the above. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubNathan RabinMar 14, 2012
It's more consistently amusing and inspired than an adaptation of an '80s TV show has any right to be. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMar 14, 2012
Some of the funniest scenes belong to Ice Cube's "angry black captain" who goes on profane rants that would make Samuel L. Jackson proud. Read full review
60
Total FilmJames MottramMar 16, 2012
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. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMar 15, 2012
This cheerfully chaotic, gleefully vulgar action-comedy retread of the old television series has box-office success written all over it, and where's the harm? It's irresistibly funny until it isn't. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierMar 15, 2012
Through it all, Tatum and Hill are totally winning. Read full review
60
Time OutKeith UhlichMar 13, 2012
The longer this "Abbott and Costello's Lethal Weapon" goes on, the more the fun dissipates - until a queasily violent climax, which, naturally, fully embraces genre stereotypes rather than dismantling them. Read full review
60
Village VoiceMelissa AndersonMar 13, 2012
Though these mismatched cops bounce well off each other, Tatum, in his first comedic lead role, is the better performer, both more riotous and affecting. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderBen SachsMar 18, 2012
Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller (Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs) seem to be after the gentle irreverence of David Gordon Green's buddy flick "Pineapple Express," but without his sensitivity and attention to character the movie quickly grows monotonous. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMar 16, 2012
Look for a cameo by a movie star whose initials are J.D. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyMar 16, 2012
A try-anything, fitfully amusing muddle that wears its mocking cynicism a bit too proudly. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenMar 14, 2012
Not that anyone was asking for a reboot of the series that is perhaps best remembered as the launching pad for Johnny Depp's career, but here it comes anyway. The film will probably gain several points on the likability scale for its sheer unexpectedness and modest ambitions. Read full review
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