Review: 'Laggies' starring Keira Knightley, Chloe Moretz, and Sam Rockwell

NOTE: This is a reprint of my review from the Sundance Film Festival. Laggies opens on October 24th.

Film festivals, in particular Sundance, have always been fertile ground for the "arrested development" comedy. Usually these movies involve men, are generally pretty comfortable and inoffensive, although they tend to be presented as more meaningful than they really are. Indie stalwart Lynn Shelton has always been given to headier comedies that explore uneasy relationships, such as in movies like Humpday, Your Sister's Sister, and Touchy Feely. With Laggies, Shelton puts a twist on the formula with a female protagonist, and while the film has its charms and is quite a bit of fun at times, it's also improbable and a step down compared to Shelton's more challenging work.

The fault doesn't lie solely at Shelton's feet; however, as Laggies marks her first time directing someone else's script. Novelist Andrea Seigel penned the story which centers on high school beauty Megan (Keira Knightley), who ten years after graduation is still best friends with her closest clique. She's been dating her high school sweetheart Mark (Mark Webber), drifting aimlessly through life while her friends are moving forward with babies and weddings. Her stagnation is enabled by her father (Jeff Garlin), who hires her to twirl a giant arrow sign luring in customers to his tax business. Basically she's going nowhere fast, and it's begun to piss off her friends.

After screwing up the wedding of her uptight best friend (Ellie Kemper), witnessing her father in a compromising position, and Mark's sudden marriage proposal, Megan freaks out and looks for anywhere to escape. Running into the 16-year-old Annika (Chloe Moretz) and buying the girl a bunch of liquor, Megan feels a kinship with her and, seeing a brief respite from responsibility, spends the evening drinking with Annika and her friends. Another encounter leads to Megan staying at Annika's house for the week, lying to Mark that she's off at a career-building seminar. Basically she decides to give up her old friends and start again with new, younger ones.

Sound plausible? Of course not, and at least the oddness of the situation is addressed, mostly by Annika's lawyer father (Sam Rockwell), a single dad who seems intrigued to have a sexy woman in the house again but disturbed by this adult hanging out with his child. And he darn well should be disturbed, because Megan is a tough character to root for. She lies, makes awful decisions that hurt a great many people, and is often irresponsible in the way that isn't cute. More sympathetic is Annika, played beautifully by Moretz, who desperately is seeking some sort of motherly connection to balance her father's overprotective nature. Similar to how he gave The Way Way Back a boost of comic energy last year, Rockwell steals every scene he's in and makes everyone around him better. The rest of the supporting cast is solid, although someone needs to tell Mark Webber it's time to move on from the boring nice guy roles. There are other personality traits beyond "nice". Short Term 12 break-out Kaitlyn Dever makes the best of limited time as Annika's rambunctious best friend.

Megan's dysfunction is relayed in broad strokes, and the consequences of her most dangerous actions can be forgiven with a hug, some sweet music, and a joke. When her irresponsibility actually causes an accident that endangers Annika, it isn't treated as a very big deal. Yes, the film skates on the edges of believability but it calls on us to take certain things seriously when there are never any repercussions for Megan. While it's true that adults don't always have the answers and sometimes make childish mistakes, Laggies says as long as you look like Keira Knightley everything will be fine.

 Rating: 2.5 out of 5

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Review: 'Sex Tape' Starring Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel

The last time we saw Cameron Diaz (ignoring The Other Woman because it's terrible) she was straddling a car while Javier Bardem watched in awe/horror in The Counselor. She's shaken her butt in two Charlie's Angels movies and used male body fluids for hair gel. Basically, raunch is not something she's afraid of in the least, but what will surprise those expecting her new comedy Sex Tape to be full of it, they'll find it's more sweet than salacious yet still very funny.

Reuniting with Bad Teacher director Jake Kasdan and co-star Jason Segel, Diaz is the star of this show because, like in the world of adult entertainment, nobody cares about the dudes. She plays Annie, a married mother of two who is trying desperately to figure out where the passion in her marriage has gone. Recounting her sexual history with husband Jay, they started off hot and heavy in college, thinking they'd retain that physical desire through pregnancy and marriage. The flashbacks, which feature Diaz and Segel distractingly aged down, are hilarious for the novelty and frequency of their characters' sexual acts. But years later the romance is gone and they can barely remember what sex is supposed to be like.

She's a blogger who writes about motherhood while he has a nebulous job at a radio station, and their seemingly disparate careers collide in ways neither could predict. When a major corporation agrees to buy Annie's blog to turn into a wholesome family destination, it's a cause for celebration. Sending the kids away for the night, she dresses up like Roller Girl from Boogie Nightsand engages in an epic 3-hour ("That's the length of the movie Lincoln! You did the full Lincoln!") sex romp with Jay in which they do every position in ‘Joy of Sex’. And as part of this renewed coital vigor, aided by a healthy dose of tequila, she also suggests videotaping the night. She demands he erase the footage afterwards, but of course he forgets and this is where his job screws things up even further. Jay has these amazing playlists stored on his IPad and is constantly getting new ones and giving away the old IPads as gifts so others can have the same music. But what he didn't realize is their sex tape would also be synced and sent out to all of the old IPads he gave away. Of course this is stupidly far-fetched but Jay is just enough of a moron that we can accept it and the wild goose chase that follows.

For a couple of reasons Sex Tape reminded me of the first couple of National Lampoon's Vacation flicks. Jay's forgetting to erase the tape was a call back to Clark Griswold's doing the same to his wife, and her image ended up plastered all over Europe as a result. Their increasingly zany journey to collect every single IPad ever given away is one that we know is doomed for failure and significant amounts of property damage. Accompanied by their horny best friends (Rob Corddry and Ellie Kemper), Annie and Jay's weirdest stop involves a run-in with the publishing guru who wants to buy her blog. Turns out he's not so wholesome (his collection of Disney-themed art is creepy as Hell) as his public persona would suggest, and as played by Rob Lowe it's probably the most inspired sequence with drugs, rabid attack dogs, and more. It's basically the centerpiece scene and the script by Segel, Nicholas Stoller, and Kate Angelo jams a lot of craziness into it. Pacing becomes an issue as a result, with the energy dipping substantially as a crop of useless subplots emerge to pad out a thin narrative. We get the central message within the first five minutes; marriage is tough and maintaining passion is even tougher, and it would be great if the issue was tackled with more of an edge.  Yes, there are glimpses of nudity and kinky sexual acts in the beginning but once that's over the film is fairly inoffensive. Fortunately, Diaz is versatile enough to shine no matter what, and she's really been hitting her stride as of late. Segel, looking gaunt now that he's gotten into shape, doesn't get as many laugh lines as Diaz but he's got impeccable chemistry with her that elevates the humor a great a deal.

Sex Tape has plenty of laughs but is less like a racy secret rendezvous than an enjoyable date night at the movies.

 Rating: 3 out of 5

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Musings: What romantic-comedy mockery does “They Came Together” do best?

You can tell that director David Wain wants his new film, They Came Together, to be as iconic as his most famous work, Wet Hot American Summer. The intent soaks the film, manifesting in every crazy aside, every use of Christopher Meloni, and every bizarre sex scene. They Came Together is Wain’s attempt at recapturing the weird magic of Wet Hot American Summer, but it doesn’t quite work—you can’t strike ridiculous lightning twice. (Check out Travis's review here.)

Nevertheless, stars Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler—as Joel and Molly, respectively—give it their all, and for as much as the film feels like an overly long sketch jammed before the 1 a.m. cutoff on Saturday Night Live, there are moments here as memorable as Meloni and his can of vegetables. If you’re going to end up seeing or renting They Came Together this weekend, do it for these five moments.

+ “He’s handsome but in a nonthreatening way; vaguely but not overly Jewish.” “Molly is the kind of cute, klutzy girl that sometimes will drive you a little bit crazy, but you can’t help but fall in love with her.” One of the first things They Came Together does well is introduce the main characters played by Rudd and Poehler, and could they have been more spot-on in their generalizations of romantic-comedy protagonists? Absolutely not. Especially if you’ve ever seen Rudd play a romantic lead, like he did way back when in Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo + Juliet” – Paris basically defined “handsome but in a nonthreatening way.”

+ Amy Poehler shaving her face. In an early sequence, a split-screen shows Rudd and Poehler getting ready for their days in a similar fashion—singing along to the same song in the shower, for example—and then Rudd shaving his face … while Poehler also shaves her face. It’s so stupid, but her cutesy, grinning face as she smears shaving cream all over it has stuck with me since.

+ Jason Mantzoukas’s beard. The thing should get its own IMDB credit. Whether he’s trying to tame it down as a candy-company executive or letting it look all crazy while he’s in costume as a vampire, it’s a thing of beauty. Bless this man’s commitment to growing, and keeping, insane facial hair. It’s almost as important to the film as Michael Ian Black’s greasy sideswept hair and orange tan—because if you’re a romantic-comedy villain, that’s just how you look. That’s just true.

+ “That’s the point of view I represent!” says Kenan Thompson, who plays the token married and token black friend to Rudd’s Joel. If only all movies were this upfront about their casting quotas.

+ That time Joel pulls a cheeseburger out from behind the ear of Molly’s-never-before-mentioned son, who immediately calls him “Daddy.” We’re so used to seeing romantic-comedy protagonists try to charm children onto their side, but at least Wain abandons the change route—who even uses coins anymore?—and goes straight for the grilled-meat option. I keep hoping someone will pull this move on me someday. I would love them for the rest of my life. 

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Review: David Wain's 'They Came Together' Starring Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler

Normally, when David Wain is at the peak of his comedic powers he's also at his most bizarre.  His seminal comedy hit Wet Hot American Summer is incredibly ridiculous, offbeat, and distinct in the way that many consider it a classic, while others will probably never get it. Most recently, Wain has been dabbling in more mainstream efforts such as Wanderlust and Role Models, but his latest film They Came Together is a poor attempt to reclaim his indie cred by tearing to shreds the most conventional genre of all: the romantic comedy.

That's right, the old rom-com, which everybody can admit is stale and painfully formulaic. That seems to be the entire point of Wain's film, which stars the bulk of his 'Wet Hot' cast, with Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler in the lead roles as a couple whose love follows a familiar step-by-step path. The problem is that Wain isn't especially clever in pointing out the silliness behind the infamous "meet cutes", contrived romantic obstacles, and phony emotional entanglements that litter romantic comedies. We're all in on the joke right from the beginning, and Wain struggles to make that one joke fly for more than 20 minutes, much less the 83 minute run time.

The whole set-up is basically ripped from You've Got Mail; perhaps the stick by which all formulaic rom-coms will forever be measured. Molly (Poehler) and Joel (Rudd) are at a restaurant on a double date with a bored married couple (Bill Hader and Ellie Kemper), when the dinner conversation turns to how they met and fell in love. All the standard genre tropes are rolled out in a fashion that is initially hilarious because we all recognize them: Molly is an awkward but lovable candy shop owner, so innocent and pure and she gives all of her profits to charity. Joel is nominally her perfect match, but he works for a huge corporation planning to open its own store right across the street and put Molly out of business. When the two meet, of course they are instant enemies despite the obvious physical attraction, but soon they overcome the tension with the help of their stereotypical ethnic best friends.

It's obvious that Wain and his talented cast are having a lot of fun with this, and the film is at its best when it ventures into ludicrous tangents that feel separate from the rom-com shaming. Wain favorite Christopher Meloni co-stars as Joel's money-grubbing boss, and his embarrassing toilet misadventures at a costume party are a highlight. Joel has his group of racially diverse buddies (including SNL vet Kenan Thompson and The State'sKen Marino) who all play basketball (badly) and act as Joel's voices of reason. While these scenes are funny and clever in their own way, you can almost hear the gears grind to a halt during a torturous, repetitive sequence between Joel and a bartender over the phrase "You can say that again". It's one of those scenes that starts off funny, becomes tiresome, but never goes back around to being funny again, and you know that's what Wain was hoping for. The film's weak double-entendre of a title should tell you there's nothing subversive going on here; every joke is pretty obvious.

Unfortunately, there are too many moments just like that one. There comes a point when Hader and Kemper's characters begin to grow weary of the overlong tale, and it's a pretty good reflection of how the audience will feel at that point. Satire is a tough beast to tame, and while some of Wain's jokes are obviously meant to be terrible, surely not so many were designed to fall as flat as they do. Rudd, who has been in more than his share of lame romantic comedies, plays along with the gags and pokes fun at himself most of all. He and Poehler make for a great pair, one that wouldn't be too surprising if they were in a straight-up rom-com at some point, but they just don't have enough material to work with. As a fan of The State and Wet Hot American Summer, They Came Together feels like Wain flailing desperately to reclaim that old magic but finding it simply isn't there.

NOTE: This is a reprinted review from the Sundance Film Festival.

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Jason Segel and Cameron Diaz Make a 'Sex Tape' in First Red Band Trailer

It's probably not a coincidence that on the night Jason Segel wraps up the ninth and final season of How I Met Your Mother, Sony drops the first red band trailer for his new film, Sex Tape. Reuniting with his Cameron Diaz and director Jake Kasdan from the $200M-grossing Bad Teacher, the film centers on a married couple looking to break out of their romantic rut by making a sex tape, only to have the private footage end up where others can easily find it. To save their reputation and public humiliation, they race to reclaim the video before it can be shared with the world.

Also starring Rob Lowe, Ellie Kemper, and Rob Corddry, Sex Tape hits play on July 25th.


Sex Tape - Red Band Trailer (2014) [HD] Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel by MEGA-UP

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Sundance Review: 'They Came Together' Starring Amy Poehler and Paul Rudd

Normally, when David Wain is at the peak of his comedic powers he's also at his most bizarre.  His seminal comedy hit Wet Hot American Summer is incredibly ridiculous, offbeat, and distinct in the way that many consider it a classic, while others will probably never get it. Most recently, Wain has been dabbling in more mainstream efforts such as Wanderlust and Role Models, but his latest film They Came Together is a poor attempt to reclaim his indie cred by tearing to shreds the most conventional genre of all: the romantic comedy.

That's right, the old rom-com, which everybody can admit is stale and painfully formulaic. That seems to be the entire point of Wain's film, which stars the bulk of his 'Wet Hot' cast, with Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler in the lead roles as a couple whose love follows a familiar step-by-step path. The problem is that Wain isn't especially clever in pointing out the silliness behind the infamous "meet cutes", contrived romantic obstacles, and phony emotional entanglements that litter romantic comedies. We're all in on the joke right from the beginning, and Wain struggles to make that one joke fly for more than 20 minutes, much less the 83 minute run time.

The whole set-up is basically ripped from You've Got Mail; perhaps the stick by which all formulaic rom-coms will forever be measured. Molly (Poehler) and Joel (Rudd) are at a restaurant on a double date with a bored married couple (Bill Hader and Ellie Kemper), when the dinner conversation turns to how they met and fell in love. All the standard genre tropes are rolled out in a fashion that is initially hilarious because we all recognize them: Molly is an awkward but lovable candy shop owner, so innocent and pure and she gives all of her profits to charity. Joel is nominally her perfect match, but he works for a huge corporation planning to open its own store right across the street and put Molly out of business. When the two meet, of course they are instant enemies despite the obvious physical attraction, but soon they overcome the tension with the help of their stereotypical ethnic best friends.

It's obvious that Wain and his talented cast are having a lot of fun with this, and the film is at its best when it ventures into ludicrous tangents that feel separate from the rom-com shaming. Wain favorite Christopher Meloni co-stars as Joel's money-grubbing boss, and his embarrassing toilet misadventures at a costume party are a highlight. Joel has his group of racially diverse buddies (including SNL vet Kenan Thompson and The State'sKen Marino) who all play basketball (badly) and act as Joel's voices of reason. While these scenes are funny and clever in their own way, you can almost hear the gears grind to a halt during a torturous, repetitive sequence between Joel and a bartender over the phrase "You can say that again". It's one of those scenes that starts off funny, becomes tiresome, but never goes back around to being funny again, and you know that's what Wain was hoping for. The film's weak double-entendre of a title should tell you there's nothing subversive going on here; every joke is pretty obvious.

Unfortunately, there are too many moments just like that one. There comes a point when Hader and Kemper's characters begin to grow weary of the overlong tale, and it's a pretty good reflection of how the audience will feel at that point. Satire is a tough beast to tame, and while some of Wain's jokes are obviously meant to be terrible, surely not so many were designed to fall as flat as they do. Rudd, who has been in more than his share of lame romantic comedies, plays along with the gags and pokes fun at himself most of all. He and Poehler make for a great pair, one that wouldn't be too surprising if they were in a straight-up rom-com at some point, but they just don't have enough material to work with. As a fan of The State and Wet Hot American Summer, They Came Together feels like Wain flailing desperately to reclaim that old magic but finding it simply isn't there.

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Sundance Review: 'Laggies' Starring Keira Knightley, Sam Rockwell, and Chloe Moretz

Film festivals, in particular Sundance, have always been fertile ground for the "arrested development" comedy. Usually these movies involve men, are generally pretty comfortable and inoffensive, although they tend to be presented as more meaningful than they really are. Indie stalwart Lynn Shelton has always been given to headier comedies that explore uneasy relationships, such as in movies like Humpday, Your Sister's Sister, and Touchy Feely. With Laggies, Shelton puts a twist on the formula with a female protagonist, and while the film has its charms and is quite a bit of fun at times, it's also improbable and a step down compared to Shelton's more challenging work.

The fault doesn't lay solely at Shelton's feet, however, as Laggies marks her first time directing someone else's script. Novelist Andrea Seigel penned the story which centers on high school beauty Megan (Keira Knightley), who ten years after graduation is still best friends with her closest cliq. She's been dating her high school sweetheart Mark (Mark Webber), drifting aimlessly through life while her friends are moving forward with babies and weddings. Her stagnation is enabled by her father (Jeff Garlin), who hires her to twirl a giant arrow sign luring in customers to his tax business. Basically she's going nowhere fast, and it's begun to piss off her friends.

After screwing up the wedding of her uptight best friend (Ellie Kemper), witnessing her father in a compromising position, and Mark's sudden marriage proposal, Megan freaks out and looks for anywhere to escape. Running into the 16-year-old Annika (Chloe Moretz) and buying the girl a bunch of liquor, Megan feels a kinship with her and, seeing a brief respite from responsibility, spends the evening drinking with Annika and her friends. Another encounter leads to Megan staying at Annika's house for the week, lying to Mark that she's off at a career-building seminar. Basically she decides to give up her old friends and start again with new, younger ones.

Sound plausible? Of course not, and at least the oddness of the situation is addressed, mostly by Annika's lawyer father (Sam Rockwell), a single dad who seems intrigued to have a sexy woman in the house again but disturbed by this adult hanging out with his child. And he darn well should be disturbed, because Megan is a tough character to root for. She lies, makes awful decisions that hurt a great many people, and is often irresponsible in the way that isn't cute. More sympathetic is Annika, played beautifully by Moretz, who desperately is seeking some sort of motherly connection to balance her father's overprotective nature. Similar to how he gave The Way Way Back a boost of comic energy last year, Rockwell steals every scene he's in and makes everyone around him better. The rest of the supporting cast is solid, although someone needs to tell Mark Webber it's time to move on from the boring nice guy roles. There are other personality traits beyond "nice". Short Term 12 break-out Kaitlyn Dever makes the best of limited time as Annika's rambunctious best friend.

Megan's dysfunction is relayed in broad strokes, and the consequences of her most dangerous actions can be forgiven with a hug, some sweet music, and a joke. When her irresponsibility actually causes an accident that endangers Annika, it isn't treated as a very big deal. Yes, the film skates on the edges of believability but it calls on us to take certain things seriously when there are never any repercussions for Megan. While it's true that adults don't always have the answers and some times make childish mistakes, Laggies says as long as you look like Keira Knightley everything will be fine.

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Stephen Colbert will lend his voice to 'Mr. Peabody and Sherman'

Even though we get to see Stephen Colbert five times a week mocking right wingers(although they don't seem to realize it) on The Colbert Report, he's not much of a presence on the silver screen. Especially in live-action films, where he hasn't done anything since The Love Guru, which is probably best left forgotten. He has been more willing to take part in animated projects, though, most recently voicing the President in Monsters vs. Aliens. Now he'll let his voice be heard again as part of Dreamworks' developing Mr. Peabody and Sherman.

With Ty Burrell and Max Charles already set to voice the super genius pup and his human sidekick, Colbert will play the film's villain, a guy named Paul Peterson. Also added to the cast alongside Carell will be Allison Janney(Drop Dead Gorgeous), Ellie Kemper(Bridesmaids), Ariel Winter(Modern Family), and Stephen Tobolowsky(Groundhog Day). Janney and Winter will play Peterson's wife and daughter. It's unclear just how the Peterson character fits into the story. What we know right now is that Peabody and Sherman will be forced to fix the space/time continuum when their time traveling WABAC machine gets screwed up.

Rob Minkoff(Stuart Little) will direct, and apparently Dreamworks has a lot of confidence because they've bumped the release date up to November 8th 2013.

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Review: '21 Jump Street', starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum

Be real. When you first heard that Jonah Hill was planning to remake 1980s era, Stephen Cannell produced cop series, 21 Jump Street, you probably scoffed and wrote it off immediately. You wouldn't be alone, and the reaction isn't without justification. Helping to launch the career of Johnny Depp and being the highlight for others like Holly Robinson and Richard Grieco, the show was ridiculous on its face, centered on a special crime unit of youthful looking adults infiltrating colleges and high schools.  Frankly, the show was more cool than good, and neither by the final season. Fortunately, Jonah Hill and writer Michael Bacall knew there was no reason to revere the source material, deciding to go for something akin to Superbad meets Police Academy. It was a gamble, but a gamble that paid off as 21 Jump Street isn't just hilarious, it's a modern day comedy classic.

Achieving the heights of hilarity that 21 Jump Street does couldn't have been accomplished by simply bringing the same old tired idea and plopping it onto the big screen. Too many other attempted remakes have made that mistake, thinking adding a few modern wrinkles will suffice. High school is nothing like it was twenty years ago. The social dynamics are different, the students are different, and the idea of who should be popular has experienced quite a shift. Setting up the change beautifully, we are first introduced to Morton Schmidt(Hill) and Greg Jenko(Channing Tatum) in high school, where Morton is an nerd doing his best Eminem impression, while Greg is the prototypical popular jock stud.

Fast forward a few years and both are enrolling in the police training program, and both are terrible for reasons the other can compensate for.  Greg becomes the brawn, and Morton the  brains. After proving they don't have what it takes to handle the rough 'n tumble beat as bike cops, they are unceremoniously dumped into a rehashed program to use young looking cops as undercover agents in high schools. Wearing a sense of self awareness on its sleeve, the film takes a few jabs at itself for being a warmed over rehash as well, up to and including the use of Ice Cube as the token angry, African-American police captain. Cube, who has become an expert at playing off his old N.W.A. persona, is in rare form here, snarling and sneering at every opportunity. If there's a scene stealer, it's him.

When it comes to comedy, it's the little details that matter the most are often the funniest. Greg is hyped for an opportunity to go back to high school and be the popular guy again, while Morton is justifiably terrified of reliving those traumatic years. What they discover upon arrival is that the entire culture is different. Greg's bullying antics make him a loner, while Morton's brains and gentle nature earn him cred with the cool kids, which he uses to try and infiltrate their drug ring.  In a lot of ways, 21 Jump Street has smarter insights into the ways teens think than some documentaries dedicated to the subject. You know from the start that Greg is going to get drunk off his new found popularity, and while it plays out like something out of Can't Buy Me Love, it works.

Insightful thought it may be, there's plenty of room for gross out gags, penis jokes, and toilet humor. Hill is old hat at this type of thing by now, although it's unfair to say he's playing the same role here. His character is a little less self confident than usual, and not at all the miscreant he played in Superbad. Tatum, a better actor than many want to give him credit for, shows an affinity for physical comedy we haven't seen from him before. It's hilarious to watch his blank, clearly confused face as the world he thought he knew is flipped upside down. Even more so, he's a ball to watch leaping over cars and beating up rowdy teenagers. The jokes at his expense, since he clearly has the body of a thirty year old man and towers over everybody, are some the film's best. Tatum seems more than willing to roll with the punches and cut loose. For the most part, the supporting cast shines as well. Bridesmaids co-star Ellie Kemper is equal parts sweet and filthy as a teacher with a Mary Kay Leternou style obsession with Tatum. Dave Franco doesn't have much to do, but Brie Larson gives a winning performance as Molly, the girl who falls for Hill's charms.

With so much attention focused on Hill, Tatum, and Bacall, it's easy to forget that the glue holding this madcap adventure together are directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Their only gig up to this point was the animated Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and you can see they brought some of the comic madness of that film into 21 Jump Street. The action sequences, of which there are plenty, are fast paced and splashed with a little bit of Looney Tunes wackiness.

You don't have to have been a fan of the show to appreciate this 21 Jump Street, but if you were then the film will feel even more special. Cameos are sprinkled throughout, including one especially brilliant appearance special for 'Jump Street' die-hards. There's practically nothing this film gets wrong. Even the closing credits rock. If there's one thing that they can do to screw this up it's making us wait too long for a sequel.

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Trailer Time: '21 Jump Street', starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum

While discussing the remake of 21 Jump Street with our good pal and colleague, Tim Gordon, he was surprised to discover that I think the film actually looks funny. I'm as shocked as anybody. The idea of reworking a bad 1980s teen cop drama into a raunchy buddy comedy sounded terrible, but I'm getting a Superbad vibe off the trailers we've seen.

Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum are an oil & water pair of dumbass cops, inexplicably sent into a high school as students in order to sniff out some drug dealers. Channing Tatum as a high school student? Do the words Mary Kay Letourneau not ring any bells?

The latest international trailer for 21 Jump Street has been released, and it features some never before seen footage. Check that out below....



What do you think? Are you looking forward to 21 Jump Street? It opens on April 16th, but will you be there to see it?

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Trailer Time: 21 Jump Street, starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum

Somehow Jonah Hill has managed to pull it off, having a remake of 1980s teen cop series 21 Jump Street not look like a complete disaster. How'd he do it? Well, first of all he's not being too slavish to the show, which probably only a handful of people have even heard of much less seen before. The only time 21 Jump Street comes up is as an answer to the Jeopardy question, "The TV show Johnny Depp got his start in alongside Richard Grieco and Holly Robinson".  But the real reason it works is because it's being prepped as a sortof grown up Superbad, with Hill and Channing Tatum playing the two idiot cops sent in as NARCS at a local high school. Set up the fish out of water scenario, throw in some jokes about Tatum's muscular features, sprinkle in a dash of Ice Cube, and voila!

The latest trailer isn't all that much different from the last one, but it's still pretty funny, especially when Hill tries to do a cool leap over a speeding car. It goes just as you'd expect it to.  21 Jump Street opens on March 16th....

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