Film Review: 22 Jump Street (2014)

One of the main issues I had with 21 Jump Street, Phil Lord and Chris Miller's (Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, The LEGO Movie) first revival of the '80s cops-pretend-to-be-teenagers series, was that it used a veneer of post-modernism to justify its existence without really doing anything else with it. By pointing out the presumed creative bankruptcy that leads studios to green light remakes of ephemera from decades ago, Lord and Miller, working from a script by Jonah Hill and Michael Bacall, were able to position 21 Jump Street as a critique of revivals of old properties, then use that as a springboard to make a really entertaining buddy cop comedy that wasn't really critiquing anything because it was too busy delivering a lot of great jokes. It started with an interesting idea, then tossed it aside once it had served its purpose. It was able to get away with that purely by being incredibly funny, but it still felt like a missed opportunity.

Film Review: The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a man of many passions and interests, chief amongst them being sex, doing enough drugs to incapacitate the population of Manhattan, and money. So much money; hire midgets so you can throw them at a giant bullseye money. As a stock broker who loses his job at a reputable (by Wall Street standards) firm, gets filthy rich by conning people into buying super cheap shares on which he gets a high commission, then sets up shop with his business partner (Jonah Hill), he is able to live a lifestyle of cartoonish excess. But as profits soar and parties get ever more extravagant, Belfort starts to attract the attention of an FBI agent (Kyle Chandler) who doggedly pursues him and his associates. But when you're obscenely rich, what does it matter if you're breaking the law?

Film Review: This Is The End (2013)

For a movie that features violent dismemberment, a prolonged discussion about proper masturbation etiquette and a version of the Devil who sports a massive penis, This Is The End is a weirdly moral film. Its story begins with all the good people on Earth being spirited away by the Rapture, then proceeds to show that its cast of privileged, self-involved movie stars (all of whom play versions of themselves) have been left stranded in a Los Angeles consumed by fire and overrun by demons because they're deeply flawed, awful people. It has a very Old Testament view of the world, one in which God most definitely exists, and he is very, very disappointed in you.

Film Review: 21 Jump Street (2012)

Much as James Bobin's The Muppets sought to make its characters relevant again by trumpeting their irrelevance, 21 Jump Street takes what should be its greatest weakness - that it is an update of a barely-remembered TV series based around an incredibly dumb premise (albeit one that isn't so dumb that real police departments haven't used it in real life) - and turns it into probably its greatest strength. Rather than taking the idea of sending young-looking Police Officers undercover as high school students even remotely seriously, the film's script, co-written by star Jonah Hill and Michael Bacall (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World) seeks to undermine it mercilessly and frequently, using the disconnect between the stupidity of the central premise and how important the characters think it is to great effect.

Film Review: Moneyball (2011)

I feel I need to begin this review by admitting two things: that I don't understand baseball and I hate maths. So Moneyball, a film about highly complicated mathematical formulae and the impact they had on professional baseball that runs over two hours, should be my idea of Hell. If you break down the basic conmponents of the film, it should be the driest, dullest story in existence, and one that should have no audience, because there's nothing that hardcore math fans hate more than sports stepping all over their spreadsheets. Oh, and I guess the reverse is probably true for baseball fans.