Tuesday’s Top Trailer: 21 Jump Street

Welcome to a weekly feature here at Movies with Abe, Tuesday's Top Trailer. One of my favorite parts about going to see movies is the series of trailers that airs beforehand and, more often than not, the trailer is far better than the actual film. Each week, I'll be sharing a trailer I've recently seen. Please chime in with comments on what you think of the trailer and how you think the movie is going to be.

21 Jump Street – Opening March 16, 2012



I noticed this recently-released trailer for this upcoming spring release online, and I come at this project without any knowledge of the original 1980s series other than that it featured a younger Johnny Depp. It’s the trend these days to remake classic TV shows into either new TV shows or films, and something tells me that this film is going to be a heck of a lot different than its source material. The two actors in the lead, whose actual ages are thirty-one and twenty-seven, seem perfect for their roles. Channing Tatum is actually a good actor, though sometimes his parts don’t showcase his non-physical talents all that much. From the looks of the trailer, I suspect he’s capable of being quite funny. It’s fitting that Jonah Hill’s second truly adult rule, following “Moneyball,” would have him pretending to be a teenager. I’m pleased to see Nick Offerman, Ellie Kemper, and Rob Riggle in the supporting cast as well. The setup here has the potential for plenty of laugh-out-loud humor, with Tatum and Hill’s characters being given enormous opportunity to act juvenilely. The requisite drug-taking scene is featured in the trailer, but the two of them, especially Hill, plays it out so well with his tongue sticking out that it looks like it will be hilarious for sure. The best line from the trailer is delivered by Offerman, dryly repeating Tatum’s description of Miranda rights as explaining that you have the right to be an attorney. The red band trailer is embedded above, but the regular preview is just as funny.