Life is pretty much dead on arrival
harmless, they realise soon enough that the ET, which they christen Calvin, is hostile and virtually indestructible.
The six-member crew tries to fend off the beastie, even attempting at one point to nuke it with a flame-thrower. Using a barrage of extreme close-ups, director Daniel Espinosa (Safe House) strives to replicate the scares generated by scores of space-set horror flicks, but merely succeeds in repeating clichés. As for the ‘and-then-therewere-none’ plotline, it fails to provide emotional engagement.
The acting is, at best, serviceable. Jake Gyllenhaal and Rebecca Ferguson glower and grimace non-stop. It is hard to fathom why Ryan Reynolds accepted what is essentially a glorified cameo.
To its credit, the film winds down with an extremely clever switcheroo designed to set the stage for a sequel.
First, a little background: Chips is an unwarranted reboot of a 1970s TV show. Dax Shepard, who wrote and directed the big-screen adaptation, also plays the lead role of a rookie police officer who needs to put both his life and his marriage back on track.
He is partnered with a straitlaced federal agent working undercover as a highway patrolman (Michael Pena).
Together, the crime-fighters stir up a storm on the streets of Los Angeles. Their mission: to bring the perpetrators of multimillion-dollar heists to justice. To add a modicum of excitement, it seems that the robberies could have been an inside job. Lame