21 Jump Street

At least the creators of the big-screen relaunch of 21 Jump Street try to be in on the joke.

It’s more of a parody than a serious adaptation of the short-lived 1980s television drama about a team of young undercover cops that was most noteworthy as a career springboard for a young Johnny Depp.

This version is conceived as more of an energetic, gleefully vulgar action comedy that shows flashes of subversive brilliance but can’t sustain its comic momentum.

The film is mostly the brainchild of Jonah Hill, who stars as Schmidt, a former high school outcast turned police officer who finds an unlikely partner on the force in Jenko (Channing Tatum), one of his coolest yet dumbest classmates.

As punishment for their mutual ineptitude, the pair is relegated to an undercover unit that uses young officers to infiltrate suburban high schools. They are assigned to stop a synthetic-drug dealer (Dave Franco), but seem more concerned with becoming cool in the hallways. Each realizes how out of touch they’ve become with modern teenagers, and fear that old wounds will resurface.

Hill and Tatum make an inspired pairing, finding just the right comic tone that includes a hint of sweetness. Ice Cube, meanwhile, steals his scenes as the scowling captain in charge of the undercover operation.

Not that anyone has much nostalgia for the source material, but there are a couple of clever and amusing nods to the TV show for those few who remember it, including a couple of cameos that won’t be revealed here.

The film marks the live-action feature directorial debut for the team of Phil Lord and Chris Miller (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs), and the filmmakers seem more concerned with keeping up the frenetic pace than putting a distinct visual stamp on the material.

After an uneven beginning, the film gets better as it goes along. But the script by Michael Bacall (Project X) generally needs more humor and less action, and perhaps an edgier satirical approach. Instead, it winds up indulging in some of the same buddy-cop cliches that it tries to lampoon.

Then again, that might not fit with the broad mainstream audience — only a fraction of which was born when the original show aired — at which 21 Jump Street is squarely aimed.

Rated R, 109 minutes.