Hill, a longtime fan of the series, cowrote the story which keeps the premise: young cops posing as high school students to nab baddies. But that's really just a jumping off point for some great observations on how youth changes from generation to generation.
The only thing "21 Jump Street"takes even remotely seriously is high school. Everything else is punch line material — including the Johnny Depp TV series that was its inspiration and the two undercover police rookies now at its center, played with a great goofball gusto by Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum.

As Schmidt (Hill) and Jenko (Tatum), this odd couple is inept from the beginning and ideal for the slap-happy sensibility of co-directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. The college filmmaking buddies have turned their off-center humor into a full-time job more innocently with 2009's animated adaptation of kids' book "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs," more provocatively with the mind-melding irreverence of the MTV animated series "Clone High." Miller and Lord clearly understand the push-and-pull and hyper-competitiveness that make guy friendships both complex and stupid. That it comes to life so fully in "21 Jump Street" is what gives the film an endearing, punch-you-in-the-arm-because-I-like-you-man charm.