The Conundrum of Liking "21 Jump Street"

It has been said that the newest 80s television remake, 21 Jump Street, is the comedy to beat this season and probably will be for the remainder of the year.  While I have not yet seen it (I’ll get to that later), I have heard these points espousing its high quality:

• Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill have great and surprising comedic chemistry

• The direction by Phil Lord and Chris Miller is as playful as it is raunchy

• The film’s screenplay by Michael Bacall and Jonah Hill is hilariously self-aware and clever

Now, I loved the directing duo’s previous work with Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and I genuinely find Jonah Hill funny and think Channing Tatum is a good guy, acting ability withheld.  When I saw the original trailer for this remake, I thought what I can only assume so many people did, I can’t say I’m surprised, but why is Hollywood still doing these remakes?  Then the film premiered to the rave reviews I mentioned before.  Surprised I was.  Not because the film might not be good, but because of the mixed message it sends to Hollywood and the hypocrisy a lot of film critics delved into.

For the past what must have been half a decade, the collective film community, and the average moviegoer more lately, has been complaining about one thing in Hollywood: the lack of originality. This comes on good conscience, since by-and-large originality is fading in the American film system (not that fellow international markets are extremely better, if at all). Take this upcoming summer season. Being released is Prometheus, a prequel of sorts to Alien, at the time an original story made for the cinema. Yet, instead of something new for this generation, we’re getting a prequel.  Granted, Director Ridley Scott and crew have been trying to move further away from the prequel description by more or less stating it happens in the same universe as the original film, not incorporating many story elements. Also, we will see the release of The Dark Knight Rises, a sequel of a rebooted series adapted from a comic book, The Avengers, a compilation sequel to several films again based on a comic book, and Men in Black 3, a sequel coming out a decade after its predecessor.  Obviously there are numerous exceptions to this trend of unoriginality: Pixar’s Brave, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, and Paranorman.  Yet again, two of those are animated films, one of which is from Pixar, who specializes in originality, and producer Tim Burton, who is known for original stories as well. Then again, his next directorial effort is what? A remake of a television vampire soap opera. And this summer trend has been going on for some time. 

I say all this to say this: are we sending mixed messages to Hollywood and being hypocritical when we positively praise films like 21 Jump Street?  I ask myself whether or not the remake story of the film could have been removed, leaving the same jokes but with a different overall plotline. It would still have all of those things I mentioned above that people have lauded the film with as none of those have a thing to do with the fact it is based on the 80s television show.  Critics are supporting this film by rating it highly, but they also criticize the lack of originality. Fanboys the world over are having aneurisms over Prometheus and The Dark Knight Rises, but take to blog comments to lambast studios today over remakes, sequels, and adaptations.  There seems to be a bit of a double standard. We want original content, but we go crazy over the next huge unoriginal film.  And I’m as guilty of this as anyone.

While I say filmgoers support unoriginal content, we much more support original content at film festivals and the non-summer film seasons. But 21 Jump Street was released in March. Then again, all those “unoriginal” films I said are original in execution. Prometheus and TDKR look pretty spectacular and seem like they will explore new territory in their franchises. Burton says his soap opera adaptation Dark Shadows branches off course from the series. The Avengers is trying a unique experiment for a superhero film in having a massive team film. And Men in Black 3 just looks terrible and useless, no real way around that: unoriginal in concept and in execution. 21 Jump Street feels fresh comedically, and more current than other comedies that are original.

So, should we be more selective in our praise of films that are unoriginal in concept? When we “rate” films, should a detractor be if it is not wholly new? Two of the highest praised films of last year were Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.  On a side note, the MI series has unoriginality maybe at the highest: it’s a television series adaptation, and the fourth in the series.  

Yet, two of the most hated films were The Smurfs and Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

For all the hate of unoriginal concept films, there is plenty of praise to go along with it. Perhaps we should reconsider this. Then again, we would be criticizing films that may not be original, but are great all the same.  This is the conundrum we face.