Rancid CHIPS 20 years past its use-by date
CHIPS (R16) Directed by Dax Shepard Starring Dax Shepard, Michael Pena, Vincent D’Onofrio 101 mins FOR every Brady Bunch and Fugitive, there’s been an Avengers or Lost in Space.
Yes, reimagining a much-loved TV series for the big screen is something of a fraught gamble.
The makers of this lamentably crass action-comedy clearly thought they were making the next 21 Jump St. Instead they managed something closer to The Dukes of Hazzard.
Like Johnny Knoxville’s illadvised attempt to bring the good ol’ boys screaming into the 21st century, CHIPS takes a muchloved, more-than-three-decadesold family-orientated series and transforms it into something completely inappropriate for anyone under 16, or in touch with today’s modern mores.
Sexist jokes abound, as Miamibased FBI Agent Castillo (Michael Pena) goes undercover in the California Highway Patrol in order to expose five ‘‘dirty’’ cops.
Posing as Frank Poncherello, Castillo’s investigations are initially hampered by being partnered with rookie Jon Baker (Dax Shepard), a former top motorcycle rider, whose other policing and life skills leave a lot to be desired.
A kind of The Naked Gun meets Bad Boys, CHIPS feels like a film 20 years out of its time.
The plot is ploddingly predictable, with the mere presence of a certain actor a giveaway that he’s going to be the criminal mastermind (even if he does oddly at least have some kind of sympathy-inducing motivation for his heists). Meanwhile, most of the ‘‘humour’’ revolves around Castillo’s sex addiction (and Lululemon obsession) and Baker’s ‘‘trick’’ knee, firearms inaccuracy and failing marriage.
The use of Aretha Franklin’s RESPECT on the soundtrack is especially ironic given the little reverence shown towards its source material, with most of the one-dimensional characters a Supplied disgrace to the beige uniform the film seems so hellbent on making fun of at every turn.
I’m unsure what the filmmakers had over the original LA 15 Seven Mary Four Erik Estrada that persuaded him to turn up for an ill-advised cameo, but like the Californian Highway Patrol (as onscreen titles suggest at the start of the farrago) – I cannot endorse this film. – James Croot