21 Junk Heap

I'm a cat who was raised in the 80s, and as such I was exposed to a gritty drama called 21 Jump Street. The series tackled some of the tough issues like abortion and abuse and featured a cast of young-looking characters, making Johnny Depp into a Tiger Beat staple.

Now, 20-odd years down the road, Hollyweird is doing what it always does, turning a great series into a film, except this time Jump Street is a ridiculous frathouse-style comedy. It stars Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill because they're hot right now, and I can see from the various trailers that this is going to suck on so many levels.

On a superficial level, Tatum and Hill are far too old for the parts they're playing. They both have noticeably thick 5 o'clock shadows that teenagers simply do not possess in addition to facial wear and lines. These facts alone bring the believability factor down to near zero, but there are tons of other issues with this trailer alone.

Next on, we have the police narrative. While the dumb cop plotline has been played to death, these 2 bozos take it to a new level, doing about 500 things that no officer of the law simply could do, but hey, its premise is stupid, so oh well. I'll even forget the fact that you don't have to actually read someone the Miranda Rights until they are actually questioned and not on arrest, as is stated in this flick.

My major problem comes at 3:35 below. You'll notice that the word autistic is used as an insult, much in the way that some ignorant jerk may use retarded. While the original series may have dealt with an autistic character in a plotline, the usage in this film is simply inexcusable.

There are numerous conditions on the autism spectrum and this jab insults a whole load of people and their families. The writers knew that they couldn't use the "r" word, so they tossed in the name of another condition as a synonym and thought nobody would notice. Well I noticed, and I'm not wasting 10 dollars to be insulted.

Fuck you MGM for taking an emotional, groundbreaking series and turning it into yet another unrealistic, trashy affront to comedy.

Warning: This trailer contains tons of NSFW language and pot shots at a few marginalized groups. Watch with this in mind.