Directed by: Phil Lord, Chris Miller
Starring: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Brie Larson, Dave Franco, Rob Riggle, Ice Cube
MPAA Rating: R
Distributed by: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Release Date: June 26, 2012
Running Time: 109 minutes
Blu-ray: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Film: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Extras: 4 out of 5 stars
In the mass flood of remakes, this action/comedy easily stands out as one of the best. The duo of Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum are a great team and really nail their roles in this film. The film is packed with laugh-out-loud comedy, but also contains some great action as well. A truly great blend of the genres. Fans of the original series, will also rejoice to see great cameos from “21 Jump Street” originals Johnny Depp and Peter Deluise. I also really appreciate that first time live-action directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller really went head-in with this film and didn’t deliver a lame PG-13 film, it is balls-to-the-wall raunchy and that is why this film is so bad-ass! So the only question left is…when is “21 Jump Street 2” coming out??
The Blu-ray presentation is good for Sony’s standards. The 1080p resolution with aspect ratio of 2.39:1, looks good but doesn’t break any records for Blu-ray. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 audio track is great though and really delivers the action well. This release also comes stocked with an Ultraviolet digital streaming copy, which I will be revisting quite a bit.
The special features are jam-packed with this Blu-ray release. There is an busy-yet hysterical audio commentary including Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and stars Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum. There are about 30 minutes of deleted scenes included, some of them are fantastic and I would have loved to see an extended cut with some of them possibly included. There is a decent length gag reel included as well. This looked like a really fun production. Next up is “Cube-O-Rama”, which is a short montage of Ice Cube’s scenes, not really my favorite aspect of the film. “Back to School” and “Brothers in Arms” are two featurettes looking into the production with Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill. “Johnny Depp on Set” is a short piece on Depp’s cameo. “The Rob Riggle Show” is a laugh-riot with some great behind-the-scenes footage. Lastly “Peter Pan on the Freeway” focuses on the film’s big action sequence.