21 Jump Street (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)

Can you believe it?  Even after seeing 21 Jump Street the film years ago I have still never seen the 80’s television show in my 37+ years of living on this land and water filled planet.  I’m a virgin there!  That’s horrible!  I should be dragged down the streets by my long, ugly hair or publicly pelted and stoned in the middle of town square for admitting that, right?  Maybe next year that will be a thing.  Well whatever capital punishment you decide for me, rest assured I will do my very best to bring justice to this 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray review of the 2012 action comedy of the same name.  Ready or not, here I go…

Film 

As I mentioned above, 21 Jump Street is an action comedy film based on the 1987 television series of the same name starring a then very young Johnny Depp.  The film was directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller and stars the dynamic duo of G.I. Joe’s Channing Tatum and Superbad’s Jonah Hill.  There are actually several years of interesting history to recount as it relates to the development of this project, but perhaps the most interesting thing I have read was that Jonah Hill at one point wanted Rob Zombie to direct this.  Now spin me around, pin a tail on my a$$ and call me crazy, but how cool would that have been?!  I digress.

The story follows two former high school losers, Morton Schmidt (Hill) and Greg Jenko (Tatum), who unexpectedly meet again at police academy.  They quickly realize each other’s strengths and weaknesses and effectively utilize their talents/differences to help each other throughout the rigorous academy and as a result they both victoriously graduate.  Better yet, they also end up assigned together on prestigious bicycle park patrol.  Hilarious!  Yep, they are not the bad-a$$ mother f#$%ers they thought they were going to be, but lucky for us, their luck is about to change…for the worse.

After failing to properly recite and read the Miranda rights during their first official drug bust in the park, our boys are demoted to taking an undercover gig down on Jump Street posing as high school students who just so happen to also be brothers.  Their directives, given by none other than NWA’s Ice Cube himself, are quite simple.  They are to infiltrate and find the supplier of a new deadly synthetic drug known on the streets as HFS (Holy F$%#ing Sh1t).  The drug is running rabid amongst the young generation.  Oh.  Did I mention they are temporarily living with Schmidt’s parents?  Wait until you get a look at the real life Jonah Hill pictures adorning the walls.  LMAO.

I think the interesting thing to take note of here is the fact that the dynamic duo now undergo a complete role reversal in the respect that Schmidt is actually hanging with the cool kids and Jenko is falling for the nerdy science crowd and seemingly loving every minute of it.  Of course there is a reason for all of this, but I’m not going to spoil a damn thing for anyone who hasn’t seen this.  This flick is one of those rare moments in time where a past TV reincarnation is successful on the big screen and I don’t want to question it for one minute.  I’m generally very hard on grading comedies making damn well sure that there is repeat/replay value, but get this folks…I watched this one four times now and I’m still busting at the seams during certain key sequences and scenes.  Therefore, I truly believe it’s quite worthy of my 4 point score here.  However, I would love to hear what you think about it below.

21 Jump Street is a film that quite frankly took me by surprise.  Never did I think I would be willingly writing about it again now for a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray review.  When it came in the mail the other day, I was giddy as a school kid.  Now that’s magic, baby!  There’s no doubt about it.  The comedy within is both rude and crude, but I wouldn’t want it any other way.  Whatever involvement Hill had in retooling the screenplay is pure genius in my opinion.  I feel like I can recognize every line of dialog he had involvement in.  If you liked Superbad, you’re going to love this reincarnation.  My only thought now is what if Rob Zombie would have directed?  That would have been incredibly interesting in my opinion, but who cares.  The product we got is amazing.

I could go on and on with the recap of the plot, synopsis and my overall feelings.  This is probably the most well done adaptation on the big screen of a former TV hit I have ever seen.  I cringe when I think of what could have been…a PG-13 cut.  Now that would have been blasphemy.  So I’ll just count my blessings here and rest assured, this disc will be getting many more spins in my 4K player this year.  21 Jump Street has it all: comedy, gut wrenching antics, car chases, plenty of action and even a couple of surprise cameos that I think that fans of the 80’s show are truly going to love.  But for now, let’s see how the 4-star film fairs in the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray disc vitals department you are all eagerly here to read about.  Vamos!

Video 

The below video score and related critique of things here are based solely upon my viewing of the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation of 21 Jump Street. If you’re interested in how the 1080p Blu-ray Disc looks, check out my review of it over HERE.

• Encoding: HEVC / H.265
• Resolution: 4K (2160p)
• Dolby Vision: No
• HDR: HDR10
• Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
• Clarity/Detail: This 2K Digital Intermediate transfer to me is night and day over its 1080p Blu-ray counterpart.  It’s kind of mind-blowing to me as I remember the Blu-ray just being plain and ordinary.  This is anything but that as it hits the 4K format with a razor sharp presentation and close-ups reveal fine details in actors like stubble, freckles, pores, moles and more.
• Depth: This one has so much three-dimensional pop to it that it’s naturally rich with depth like moments in the park, mall, parking lot, shoe store and other interiors.  Details in the backgrounds are rich and layered.
• Black Levels: The black levels are all deep and inky throughout creating a nice sense of contrast.  Everything about this is so much better than the Blu-ray.
• Color Reproduction: The HDR is the star here as the 4K picture is now vibrant, bold, beautiful and also natural looking.  I love it now!
• Flesh Tones: Flesh tones are all natural looking and pleasing throughout here.  There are minimal differences due to set lighting, but nothing really noticeable.
• Noise/Artifacts: There is a smidge of source noise in the presentation when the two are in Schmidt’s bedroom, but other than that there’s nothing to take you out of this fine looking 4K presentation.

Audio 

Like I mentioned up above in the video section, the below audio score and critical comments of such are based solely upon my viewing of the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation of 21 Jump Street.  If you’re interested in the Blu-ray Disc, check out my review of it over HERE.

• Audio Format(s): English Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 compatible), English Audio Description, English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, French (Parisian)  5.1, French (Quebec) 5.1, Czech/Cesky 5.1, German 5.1, Hungarian/Magyar 5.1, Italian 5.1, Polish/Polski 5.1 VO, Portuguese 5.1, Russian 5.1, Spanish (Castillian) 5.1, Spanish (Latin American) 5.1, Thai 5.1, Turkish 5,1, Ukranian 5.1,
• Subtitles: English, English SDH, Arabic, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Czech, Danish/Dansk, Dutch/Netherlands, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin American), Swedish, Thai, Turkish
• Dynamics: I was pretty impressed back in the day with this film’s Blu-ray audio, but wow here!  The main reason to upgrade with this one on 4K Disc is because of this new, ferocious Atmos track.  Yes, you heard me right.  I used the word ferocious to describe a comedy film’s surround audio track.  Usually comedic films aren’t this engaging and explosive, but let’s not forget…this is an action comedy!  Sony hit it on the head here.  It’s loud, rowdy, vivacious, directional and utilizes a wide landscape.  I really can’t see how anyone can argue with me here nor walk away disappointed.  Thanks Sony!  I quite frankly haven’t heard an action comedy sound so good in a long time.  This one has no business sounding this good.
• Height: The Dolby Atmos channels bring a lot to this 4K package with moments of score and soundtrack (think Eminem’s “Slim Shady”), gunshots, explosions and more.  Alright, so I’ll be honest here.  It’s not the best at discreet height effects, but holy wow does it pack a punch with the score and soundtrack.  So much so that it made my fronts feel like they were stacked to the ceiling.  I’ll take that!
• Low Frequency Extension: The LFE channel sounds large and in charge here in the score and soundtrack categories not to mention all the zany action, gunshots, explosions, car crashes, heartbeats and more.
• Surround Sound Presentation: The rear channels immerse you here in all the moments of action, score, sound effects, explosions and my favorite when they were in the gun range firing some off.
• Dialogue Reproduction: The dialogue levels are always loud, clear, intelligible, concise, clean and directional throughout the presentation here.  There is never a single issue here.

Extras 

21 Jump Street on Blu-ray included a nice collection of HD goodies, including the ever so important commentary track, a plethora of deleted scenes, several featurettes, some previews and a Digital Copy.  While the latter is also true here, albeit a Movies Anywhere compatible one in 4K UHD, the 4K Disc within here also has some extra goodies.   However, trust me, they are nothing to write home about.  The minimal extras on the 4K Disc include the film’s Theatrical Trailer (2:33), Red Band Trailer (4:43), International Trailer A (2:01) and B (1:13). All of the below extras can be found housed on the included 1080p Blu-ray Disc.

• Audio Commentary – Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are joined by Actors Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum in an engaging audio commentary that fans of the film will most likely enjoy.  Nothing too technical is discussed here.

• Deleted Scenes (HD, 29:32) – There are a slew of deleted scenes to be found here.  For your reading pleasure, here’s a list of them all: Not So Slim Shady, Meet Captain Dickson, Teenaging the F*ck Up, More Rules of Jump Street, Meet the Schmidts — Extended, Lunch Plans, Principal’s Office — Extended, Marigold and Levy Commercial with Mr. Gordon, Law & Order with Mr. Gordon, Ms. Griggs’ Lesson on Bonds, Jenko Joins the Band, Late Night Chat, My Character & Your Character, The Nerds Discover Alcohol, More Partyin’, Awesome Dr. Pepper Joke, Braggable Stuff, Eric’s Last Chance for Happiness, The Bad Guys Go to Jail, and Jump Street Flashback.

• Gag Reel (HD, 4:58) – No explanation is necessary here.

• Cube-O-Rama (HD, 1:53) – This is basically nothing more than a montage of Ice Cube scenes for fans only in my opinion.

• Back to School (HD, 7:43) – A short supplement that features cast and crew discussing the changing face of high school and how the modern high school landscape shapes the film. Also discussed is the plot and the work of the cast, intermixed with some random humorous insights.

• Brothers in Arms (HD, 6:24) – This one involves the dynamic duo, as I call them, of Tatum and Hill.  A closer look…one could say.

• Johnny Depp on Set (HD, 4:42) – The title of this one doesn’t give anything away about any cameos I mentioned above, does it?

• The Rob Riggle Show (HD, 9:24) – Cast and crew celebrate the actor.

• Peter Pan on the Freeway (HD, 4:12) – Take a closer look at the freeway chase here.

Final 

So there you have it my fellow readers.  There’s nothing to fear here other than not making the time to catch this rude and crude comedy gem where the producers not only pay homage to the 80’s show of the same name, but also completely make it their own.  Want a fun good time with a flick?  Then look no further.  You don’t even need to be a fan or a one-time/casual viewer of the original show to appreciate this one in my opinion.  Even better this one is now on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc with amazing HDR infused video, a new, bombastic Dolby Atmos surround audio track and a decent supplemental package.  This is definitely a comedy action flick to own on the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray format whether you are a Johnny Depp fan or not.  You can take that to the bank and cash it (wear your mask inside though).

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DISCLAIMER: This 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray review was judged and graded using the following 4K certified Ultra HD Premium television set found here and player here.  Make sure to check out all our 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray reviews archived here.

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21 Jump Street

Serves Up The Laughs

on 4K UHD Blu-ray

ORDER NOW!

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Brian White

Owner/Writer/Reviewer/Editor, Dreamer, Producer, Agent of Love, Film Lover, Writer of Screenplays and a Devoted Apostle to all things Ford Mustangs (the real ones with V8's!). Some of my favorite films include FIGHT CLUB, MOULIN ROUGE, THE DARK KNIGHT, STAR WARS alongside television shows such as SEINFELD, 24, SANFORD & SON and even the often loathed in the geek community BIG BANG THEORY. Outside of my three lives I live I also enjoy spending time with my girlfriend and our three girls (of the furry kind).