21 Jump Street gets comedic treatment
Here’s what’s on the radar screen in TV, music and film for the coming week. Movies Big release: 21 Jump Street (Friday)
Bigpicture: A slimmeddown Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum (Yes, AGAIN; apparently, there are no other actors working in Hollywood at the moment) star in this comedy about a pair of mediocre cops who go undercover at a high school to bring down a drug ring. Very loosely based on the TV drama, 21 Jump Street, expect humour that sounds canned at the Judd Apatow laugh factory. Although Hill can pass for a high-school student, Tatum looks more like the jock who has repeated Grade 12 — for the 10th time.
Forecast: 21 Jump Street without Johnny Depp ( although he has a cameo) in the lead feels like a fish out of water — or Charlie Sheen out of cocaine — i.e., just plain wrong. It seems an odd decision to turn a cult TV drama into a big-screen Hollywood comedy. But if movie audiences can forget — or are oblivious to — the original, they can just focus on enjoying the laughs. With a supporting cast that includes Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation), Ellie Kemper (Bridesmaids) and Chris Parnell (Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock), those should not be in short supply.
Honourable mention: Jeff, Who Lives at Home (March 16). You can’t go wrong in the comedy department by pairing up Jason Segel (How I Met Your Mother) with Ed Helms (The Office, The Hangover). Segel plays Jeff, a pot-smoking slacker living in his mom’s basement; Helms plays his conservative brother who comes to Jeff for help and lures him into the real world. TV Big event: Missing (Thursday, CTV/ABC, 8 p.m.)
Big picture: It’s Bourne meets 24 meets Ashley Judd’s undeniable charm. Judd plays Becca Winstone, a former deadly CIA operative — just once, can’t a CIA operative be described as cuddly and harmless? — who gave up her career for motherhood. When her son goes missing in Italy under mysterious circumstances, she embarks on a dangerous hunt for the truth and reaches into her old bag of spy tricks, i.e., blowing a lot of things up and/ or beating a lot of people up. Sean Bean (Game of Thrones) plays Judd’s husband, another CIA agent who was murdered years ago. (His death may be linked to her son’s fate.)
Forecast: Tune in if you want to watch Judd take a page from Jack Bauer, and break every rule in the criminal code, to find her son — and leave a lot of bruised and battered bodies in her wake. (For the record, I’d much rather be tortured by Ashley Judd than Kiefer Sutherland.) Music Big release on Tuesday: Meat Loaf (Hell in a Handbasket)
Big picture: The world truly is going to hell in a handbasket when Public Enemy’s Chuck D is guest-rapping on a Meat Loaf song. Patti Russo, who joined the singer on his hit, I Would Do Anything for Love, returns for a couple of duets in his latest effort. The album also features a guest rap by Lil Jon, The Loaf ’s fellow Celebrity Apprentice contestant.
Forecast: If you’re a Meat Loaf fan (even if he’s a guilty pleasure), you’ll find a lot to like in this mix of originals and covers, including a bloated, over-the-top, saxophone-infused — and oddly endearing — cover of California Dreamin’. If you’re a musical vegetarian, pick up The Decemberists’ new live album.