Here’s a fan reconstruction of the Universal Conan show that got Gary Goddard the job directing Masters Of The Universe!
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Given our current situation as parents of a very active toddler and a born-early infant, my wife and I don’t find a lot of time where we’re just hanging out in an evening with enough time to watch a feature film. Well, one night a few weekends back we were in that rarified air on a Saturday night and decided to give Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s 21 Jump Street a look.
The basic concept is that Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) were high school adversaries who both wound up being less-than-well-balanced police academy students who got over their past to become good friends. They also get assigned to the re-opened 21 Jump Street program which takes young-looking cops and puts them into high schools to help solve crimes (the basic plot of the Fox series of the same name, of course). Their first mission puts them in a school where a new drug is making the rounds and it’s their job to bust it up. As they get to school, though, the jocky Jenko comes to realize that his ways aren’t cool anymore while Schmidt quickly gets in with the popular kids, relishing ever minute of his newfound acceptance.
This movie won me over in the first 10 minutes or so when they quickly got past the bullying stuff and got right to these guys becoming real, good friends. It reminded me a little of Hill’s similar relationship with Michael Cera’s character in Superbad because it feels honest, especially when it hits snags as the film progresses. Beyond that, it’s just a damn funny movie. I laughed so hard throughout the entire film that my throat was a little sore afterwards.
In addition to the big name leads, the film includes plenty of great cameos — including one by original series star Johnny Depp! — and the leads were fantastic, but Dave Franco really stole the show for me personally. Nothing against his brother, but I think the younger Franco might be even more charismatic. He’s captivating, plain and simple.
As far as relating back to the original material, I wasn’t a 21 Jump Street fan when the show was on. For a long time, it was a reference I’d hear, but only vaguely understood. But I did watch at least the first season on Netflix a few years back and had fun with it. So, with some knowledge going in, I’d say that Lord and Miller used the concept of the series as a spring board for something much bigger and funnier, but without making fun of the original too much.
21 Jump Street surprised a lot of people when it came out last year. People weren’t sure what to think of the comedic take on the 80s Fox drama about young-looking cops infiltrating high schools to solve crimes, but the combination of Michael Bacall and Jonah Hill’s script, Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s direction and the chemistry between stars Hill and Channing Tatum made the film a comedy-action hit.
Lord and Miller talked to Collider during SDCC this year and announced a good deal of information on 22 Jump Street, which will be their post-The LEGO Movie follow-up. First up, they discussed some of the challenges in nailing down the script.
“People don’t wanna see the same movie that they saw the first time, they don’t wanna see something super different from the first movie, and navigating what that is has been challenging,” Miller said. “We didn’t really sign on to this movie until about a month ago because we didn’t feel like we were sure that it would be a good movie, and then finally we got to a point in the script where we were like, ‘Okay, I believe this will be a good movie.’”
“It’s more about their marriage, basically,” Lord said after talking about how he and Miller looked to their own relationships for inspiration. “If the first movie is about two people getting together for the first time, this is about what happens if you try to really make the relationship work. We’ll probably never do another bromance after this one, but we’re trying to get as emotionally deep into that as possible.”
He also quickly explained the story-logic behind the name change: “It’s called 22 Jump Street because they move across the street.”
Production is expected to begin in New Orleans this September.
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