"21 Jump Street" releases on a single-disc Blu-ray package housing the film's Blu-ray and UV digital copies and supplemental materials. This 2012 action-comedy flick is a crass adaptation of a 1980s cop drama series featuring a very young Johnny Depp in a role that gained him fame as a teen idol. For this cinematic version, the plot revolves around a pair of immature, mismatched, and underachieving cops in an undercover mission as high school students aiming to bust a synthetic drug ring. This motion-picture reboot stars Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube, Dave Franco, and Brie Larson.
Visuals
Painted with a slightly saturated palette, the picture generally looks clean and filmic. Deep blacks, stable details, and decent textures are rightfully reproduced in this Blu-ray transfer without encountering serious image issues. There are no evident cases of banding, artifacting, noise reduction, and other eyesores plaguing the shots.
Unfortunately, a number of CG effects register as second-rate offerings. As expected, their flaws become even more visible in high definition. Most sequences also lack a slight boost in brightness, especially the interior scenes.
Audio
The movie's five-channel audio track fares better than its visuals. It effectively hosts the story's raunchy dialogue, soundtrack cues, and drug-induced antics. Sounds of gunshots and explosions provide enough energy to this talkative comedy's action parts. Lively surround cues are often heard across the channels.
From the blaring pop songs in room-shaking party scenes to the realistic ambience of the bustling school hallway, the mix never feels out of balance. Dialogue is always clear and intelligible. The disc also supplies five-channel dub options in Spanish, French, and Thai.
Supplements
This Blu-ray presentation's quality extras include the audio commentary track by directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and actors Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, a collection of deleted scenes, a gag reel, the Ice Cube montage entitled "Cube-O-Rama," the cast and crew featurette "Back to School," the Tatum-Hill tandem featurette "Brothers in Arms," the Depp cameo discussion in "Johnny Depp on Set," the behind-the-scene featurette in "The Rob Riggle Show," and a random collection of footage from the freeway chase scene in "Peter Pan on the Freeway." All videos are presented in HD format. Subtitles are available in a number of languages including English, English SDH, Spanish, French, Indonesian, Korean, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), and Thai.
Final Thoughts
"21 Jump Street" may not be in the roster of the best comic outings of all time, but it is certainly one of the funniest gross-out comedies of 2012. What primarily makes this movie work is the way it allows its characters to effectively develop during the course of the story. It has an oddball comedy sort of vibe that aptly combines slapstick elements with slick and downright hilarious lines. Going beyond the expectations for such a dated TV show remake, it manages to be a likeable treat through its delightfully wild take on its undercover cop material.
