Movie studios are always looking for properties with established fan-bases to use as springboards for new film projects. It’s part of what has spawned the franchise, remake, sequel, prequel, and “re-imagining” crazes of the past few years, as well as the superhero movie resurgence. There’s a built-in audience ready and willing to lap up the familiar goodness of a project they already know plenty about. And one of the more rabid fan sects has to do television shows. Small-screen junkies stick with their favorite shows for years (and sometimes decades) and become very protective of them.
So it’s with great relief that we have the following news to share: 21 Jump Street, the reboot of the popular ’80s series, now starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, is way funnier than you’re probably expecting. With the film hitting theaters this Friday, Complex thought it’d be a welcome challenge to look back and find the television-to-cinema projects that also don’t suck—and it wasn’t an easy mission. Still, we’ve found plenty of quality, whether it’s universally praised or worthy of guilty pleasure distinction. So, without further delay, let us count down The 25 Best Movies Based On TV Shows.
Written by Scott Neumyer (@scottneumyer)
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