Sometimes you just want to watch something idiotic, get a few laughs, and have the experience not be deeply offensive or insulting. Such is the mood my wife and I were in yesterday, leading to our attendance at 21 Jump Street in the Union Square 14 theater. The audience was PACKED – obviously we are not the only people feeling trampled by our lives.

21 Jump Street is exactly what you expect it to be, maybe a tiny bit better. It’s dumb, but a touch original in its dumbness. It’s not hilarious but it makes you laugh a bit. The two leads suit the material well. And the movie hangs together pretty well from start to finish (usually these thing come unraveled about half-way through.) And I’ll say this for it: there was no potty humor and only one instance of “dick humor,” so in my book 21 Jump Street is already coming out ahead of the Apatow/Smith/Rogen crowd. My wife and I enjoyed it, and did not regret seeing it – it delivered on expectations very well.

See it if you desperately want to shut your brain off for two hours without causing permanent damage.