43 "Jump Street": A Silly Movie Rewatching Extravaganza

Hello encore!

In order to maintain adherence to my writing goals, I am attempting two posts in one day before the month is over!

In order to further adhere to my writing goals, I will attempt to actually keep this post short!

I have really been appreciating the fact that I have loosened my parameters for which movies "count" in my 52 movies/year goal to include movies that I have watched before.  It's meant that I can revisit movies without feeling, completely arbitrarily and perfectionistically, like they're a "waste of time", which is good because what does that even mean for someone who loves movies??

Not all of the movies I've rewatched are excellent, but that's fine--as dedicated readers may be aware, Husband and I are at times prone to watching movies that are concertedly and intentionally fine--just fine--because sometimes I just don't need a challenge or an emotionally transformative experience.

HOWEVER.  Two recent rewatches are most certainly excellent:

"21 Jump Street" (2012)

and

"22 Jump Street" (2014)

Readers with a very good memory may recall that I have a personal love story with these movies.  In 2012, Husband (then-Boyfriend) and I went to see a terrible Disney movie (unheard of!), hated it immediately, and for then-Boyfriend's very first time ever, we theater hopped into "21 Jump Street", where it saved the evening because it was thoroughly delightful.

In retrospect, it comes as absolutely no surprise that I loved both "Jump Streets", as they are directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller--the directors of a little movie I may have mentioned before called "The LEGO Movie" (2014).

True to form, both of these movies are silly, inventive, self-aware, sweet, and charming, thereby casting off the constraints that would normally accompany remakes of pre-existing media and render them a bit tired, boring, and stiff.  The casts are great.  The writing is great.  I giggled a lot.  Who could possibly complain?

Interestingly, my reliability as a rater for these films is remarkably high, likely aided by the fact that the movies' quality is commensurately high and they have, to my pleasure and relief, held up well with the passage of time.  When I originally saw each of them, I rated both "Jump Streets" (I am oddly tempted and actually barely fighting the impulse to instead refer to them as "Jumps Street", like attorneys general) as a 4.  Upon rewatching them, I gave "21 Jump Street" a 4, and upgraded "22 Jump Street" slightly to a 4.5.

So, if you're in the mood for something easy and fun, please enjoy the national treasure that is Channing Tatum and these two delights of cinema.

{Heart}