On the couch

21 Jump Street
****
Directed by: Phil Lord, Chris Miller
Starring: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Brie Larson, Dave Franco, Rob Riggle

Headhunters
*****
Directed by: Morten Tyldum
Starring: Aksel Hennie, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Synnøve Macody Lund, Julie Ølgaard

My only memories of 21 Jump Street – the TV show that is – are from when it ran on RTÉ in the 80s. The sound of the theme song taunted me as I left my granny’s every Sunday.

 

 

The older cousins would stay and watch, eating lamb sandwiches and cake and drinking tea, while I got to sit in the back of the car and lament the thrilling, heart-stopping levels of coolness I was surely missing. Back then, the closest thing to the internet we had was a copy of Smash Hits magazine and the only people with video recorders were the same ones that had helicopters, butlers and race horses.

The 21 Jump Street of 2012 is a very different beast to the soapy crime drama that launched Johnny Depp’s career and he subsequently spent years living down. Partially a product of the script stylings of Jonah Hill, it’s crass, crude and funny as hell.

Maintaining the basic idea of being about a division of the police that specialises in sending young-looking cops undercover into schools, the film focuses on Officers Morton (Channing Tatum) and Schmidt (Jonah Hill). Fresh out of the police academy and as clueless as only movie cops can be, the two are sent back to high school to bust a drug ring distributing a new and deadly substance to the youf.

The hilarious twist, however, is that while Morton was the big man on campus in his day, the teens of the 2010s are less taken with meathead apathy and, for the first time, the dorky Schmidt finds himself to be the centre of the cool kids.

While this all might sound about as inspired as a sponge floating in a bucket of stupid, Jump Street is actually far smarter and more self aware than it sounds or, in fact, most of its competitors in the field of dumbass comedies.

A little speech at the start of the flick where the history of programme is explained – are they talking about the kiddy cop thing or the tv show? – is also the most unabashed kick in the nuts to the Hollywood system and its habit of remaking things rather developing original projects that you’re likely to hear this year. It’s funny, and it makes you think. The jokes continue in that vein with constant references to how old Tatum looks and other fourth wall breaking nonsense.

As might be expected, the story isn’t exactly a Serpico-level cop story but at least some degree of effort has been made to ensure that events are entirely obvious in how they unfurl. A make-or-break consideration for a film like Jump Street is the quality of the supporting cast. In this case the likes of Dave Franco (you’ll recognise him from the last season of Scrubs), Rob Riggle and Ice Cube (of all people) are just a few of the co-stars that steal every scene they’re in.

Most importantly however, Tatum and Hill are great together. While Hill has a proven record as a funny man it’s impressive to see Tatum – who got his start as a dancer and has been, until recently, viewed as a sort of diet version of Mark Wahlberg – step up (cough) to prove his comedy chops.

You’re not likely to be able to watch 21 Jump Street with your granny of a Sunday afternoon but if you’re looking for something loud, dumb and full of laughs, then it’s just what the doctor ordered.

The worst thing about Headhunters – Morten Tyldum’s Norwegian thriller about a businessman moonlighting as an art thief – is how it makes you feel after it’s over.

Make no mistake, it’s a quality flick. Brilliant even. And the ending is a suitably satisfying denouement to the twisting, turning tale of corruption, theft and desperation. But in the end you’re left feeling sad because as you sit back and pick popcorn out of your jumper, you’re be left wondering, “Why can’t there be more films like this?”

Aksel Hennie stars as Roger Brown a high-flying recruitment agent who likes to keep his pockets extra plump by robbing the odd painting here and there. A chance meeting with a Dutch businessman Clas Greve (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau – Ser Jaime Lannister in Game of Thrones) offers Brown the chance at ‘the big score’ – an art treasure previously thought lost during the war.

A simple job spirals wildly out of control in a sometimes terrifyingly believable manner and Tyldum does a marvelous job of squeezing toe-curling tension and the occasional moment of horror out of the most mundane of scenarios.

Without little in the way of gunfights, scraps or car chases, Headhunters manages to keep an audience gripped to their seats in a way that, arguably, hasn’t really been done that well since Hitchcock was shouting “action” at his actor-props.