21 Jump Street launched Johnny Depp‘s career in 1987, and now Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill are reviving the TV series in a big screen adaptation of the undercover cop series.
Original cast members Depp, 48, Peter DeLuise, 45, and Holly Robinson Peete, 47, all make cameos in the comedic film, in theaters Friday. The movie also stars Dave Franco, 26, Ellie Kemper, 31, and Ice Cube, 42.
The movie joins a growing list of recent remakes, including Footloose and Straw Dogs, both released in 2011.
“So many people hold Footloose close to their heart, as I did. I loved it growing up as a young dancer,” Kenny Wormald, who took over Kevin Bacon‘s role as Ren McCormack, told Us Weekly in 2011. “The pressure was more on the project, not who I was following. It was more about: ‘Let’s make Footloose. Don’t mess it up.'”
Not every remake has been so successful. Nicole Kidman‘s The Stepford Wives in 2004 was a box office and critical failure, as was the 1998 reimagining of Alfred Hitchcock‘s Psycho, starring Anne Heche, 42.
Though it’s too early to predict how 21 Jump Street will perform, Us Weekly‘s deputy editor and movie critic Mara Reinstein gives it three stars.
“You have the right to remain skeptical of any movie recycled from an old TV show,” Reinstein writes. “But this flat-out hilarious effort, based on the 1987-1999 TV series, is an exception — mainly because it’s in on the joke.”
For more of the best and worst movie remakes — including The Parent Trap, House of Wax and Scar Face — check out Us Weekly‘s gallery now.
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