21 Jump Street

Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum are hilarious together in the movie version of the late 80s/early 90s tv show about young cops working undercover as students in high school. The filmmakers made the wise decision to go for humor in their take on the premise. The afterschool special tone of the tv show would not have translated well into a contemporary movie. There are several episodes of the show available on imdb and hulu if you are interested, there are funny moments in the show. Jonah Hill was quoted as saying that they were attempting to make "a R-rated, insane, Bad Boys-meets-John Hughes-type movie." I think their efforts were successful.

I laughed out loud many times and that is the purpose of an all out comedy like 21 Jump Street. The movie knows what it is, it even pokes fun at itself. Things went a bit too far for me to maintain my suspended disbelief, but the chemistry of Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum more than made up for it. I want to see these two together again, it was a blast to watch them.

And on DVD...
The Outsiders

I have been reading Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe and after reading about his experiences filming Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation of SE Hinton's novel, I wanted to see the movie which I had never seen before. A librarian, Jo Ellen Misakian, at Lone Star Elementary School in Fresno, California, and her students requested that Coppola make the movie. Filmed in 1982 and debuting in March of 1983, the movie has not aged well. The best thing that can be said for the film is the careers it launched and that it contains the early work of not only Lowe, but also Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, C Thomas Howell, Patrick Swayze, Tom Cruise, Emilio Estevez, and Diane Lane. Tying the two movies together, Rob Lowe crossed paths with Holly Robinson Peete early in his career; she was in both the tv show and movie 21 Jump Street. For what it's worth, I enjoyed reading about the making of the movie more than I did watching it.

A Friendship Top Five List

The time has come to present a list of the Top Five Movies of my friendship with my bestie Laura. As we ran our warm-up laps for track all those years ago, it is not surprising that all these flicks are from a four year range in the 90s.

1) First up, Romy and Michele's High School Reunion.
Laura and I watched this movie more times than I can recall at sleepovers. We even watched it the night before we attended our own ten year reunion.

2) The Wedding Singer
This is another movie that we have watched several times together. Many of the songs featured in the two volume soundtrack are featured on the CD of songs from the year we were born that Laura made me for my 30th birthday.

3) Interview With the Vampire
The movie that started it all. Literally. Remember in school when a friend became a real friend, when you actually hung out together outside of school? Well the first time Laura and I hung out, I went to her house and we watched Interview With the Vampire. We would watch several other horror movies together before leaving high school. Oddly, as neither of us are horror fans today.

4) Seven Years in Tibet/Meet Joe Black
Through out the years, we have seen many a Brad Pitt flick. Honorable mention goes to Johnny Depp. We have also seen many Johnny Depp movies and Laura's husband Jerre even commented once on "our whole 'Johnny Depp' thing."

5) Psycho (1998)
Part of the high school horror trend. Laura and I creepily saw Psycho in an empty theater. We were the only ones in the theater at the no longer in existence 82nd Cinema. We saw a lot of movies there before it closed in 2004. I think something really depressing like a Baby Gap is there now. Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates? Really Gus Vant Sant, your next project after Good Will Hunting, really?! It remains one of our most memorable movie going experiences.

Maybe in another 17 years we can make it a Top Ten list.