Gallery: The 10 Least Believable Undercover Cops In Movies

In 1987, when the original 21 Jump Street debuted, Johnny Depp secured his sure-shot trajecotry to fame as Officer Tom Hanson, a fresh-faced undercover cop who infiltrates the youth crime scene.

Twenty-five years later, newly-minted leading men Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill are looking to bring new life, and some laughter, to the once heavy-hitting concept of adults going undercover as kids. The Phil Lord and Christopher Miller directed film will make its way into theaters this Friday, and Depp himself will even make a brief—but totally amazing—cameo.

While we're not worried about Depp's screen time, we're not sure if we're alltogether convinced that Tatum and Hill can pull the cops-posing-as-teenagers shtick off. The good news is, if they fail, they will be in good company. Hollywood has a habit of routinely casting characters whose incognito status is dubious at best. Sure, sometimes the least plausible characters are intentionally cast for laughs, but oftentimes covert cops are actually meant to be convincing, and just aren't up to snuff. Here, we'll look back on all of those clandestine cops that have raised our skepticism and failed to suspend our disbelief: The 10 Least Believable Undercover Cops in Movies.

Written by Shanté Cosme (@ShanteCosme)

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Don't take it too hard, guys. Johnny Depp is a hard act to follow. Depp was a babyfaced badass, but let's be honest with each other. Jonah looks way too aged to pass as a high schooler, unless that student has severe learning disabilities that held them back like eight times, and Channing Tatum is far too swoll to look prom age. Jonah, stick to 20-something stoner flicks and Tatum, keep doing stripper movies. That's totally your niche.

We hate to be the ones to say it, but Bullock was already well past her prime in 2000. She'd be convincing as an undercover soccer mom, but a beauty queen? Maybe in 1993.

We're sorry, Arnold, but you're asking us to suspend our disbelief a little too much on this one. You want us to believe you could pass as a kindergarten teacher with your biceps bursting your suit's seams and your thick Austrian accent? "Iss NAWT a toomah" in his sweatpants, kids, that's just what happens when teach spends 10 hours a week doing squats instead of working on lesson plans!

Cross-dressing is rarely plausible (See: Jack and Jill, The Nutty Professor, Hairspray) but cross-race-dressing? That shit should never be attempted, ever. The Wayans brothers impersonating two white heiresses is the least believable drag we've ever seen. Rather than looking like two rich white girls, the duo looks like a pair of car accident victims whose faces have been replaced with someone else's (in this case, someone who looks like Tori Spelling), and the result is nothing short of terrifying.

Plus, their rendition of Vanessa Carlton's "A Thousand Miles" still haunts us, and not in a good way.

You actually expect us to believe a 300 lb. grandmother knows how to unleash a roundhouse like that without getting so much as a run in her stocking? FOH. If our grandmother looked like that, we'd put her in a home.

Master of disguise? More like master of disgust.

If you're going to go undercover you need to be able to convincingly act like whatever it is that you're impersonating. Therein lies the problem for these two goofball cops, who infiltrate a drug kingpin's home by dressing up as two of the worst mimes ever for his daughter's Bat Mitzvah and get into another of his parties by playing ridiculous big wigs in ridiculous big wigs. If you can manage to look conspicuous in the '70s, when dudes were rocking platforms and bellbottoms, you know you've gotta tone the disguises down a notch.

Let us get this straight: Colin Farrell manages to convince the Colombian drug cartel he's legit narcotics smuggler? We're not buying it. The slicked back hair, the khaki suits, Native American jewlery, and sporadic changes in accent (Are you Irish? Cuban? Texan? Pick an accent already, asshole!) would totally give his undercover identity (and also Farrell's skill-eroding substance abuse) away.

If you're going to infiltrate white culture, there are certain things you have to do (at least according to this movie). As Anton Jackson, blaxploitation spoof here Undercover Brother does fine toning down his natural rhythm and soul, but when it comes time to take a big bite out of a mayo sandwich, and he's unable to squirt some hot sauce on it first, he hesitates with the eggy goodness at his lips. He does, in fact, choke it down, but by them you know all the whites of the white eyes would be on him.

To catch a serial killer who's targeting homosexual men, officer Burns leaves his pretty little girlfriend and goes undercover in NYC's gay S&M scene at the Meatpacking District's leather bars. This is how the square policeman dances. As far as we're concerned, that's cover blown.

What about Paul Walker's metrosexual undercover LAPD officer, who infiltrates the street racing subculture to catch some hijackers, says shady grease monkey? It's certainly not the pretty boy coif. Homie looks like he knows more about pomades and spray tanning than NOS and exhaust systems. This operation should've stalled out at the starting line.