Review: CHiPS

A fun but not exactly great TV series that ran from 1977 - 1983, CHiPS, like most big-screen adaptations of shows from the '70s or '80s, has been remade as an unironically comedic buddy movie. Like most such adaptations, with the arguable exception of 21 Jump Street, CHiPS loses the basic fluff appeal, casual sexism, and eye-rollingly stereotypical characters that made it very much a product of its time and, in doing so, becomes a bland, fitfully entertaining, ceaselessly noisy flick.

Dax Shepard, who also wrote and directed, co-stars as Jon Baker, whose years as a professional motorcycle rider have taken a toll on his body, which has undergone 23 surgeries and is functional via a heavily pharmaceutical regimen. His marriage is all but flatlined, but he's determined to win back his estranged wife (Kristen Bell, Shepard's real-life wife) so he joins the California Highway Patrol, where he's paired up with Frank "Ponch" Poncherello (Michael Peña), who is actually an undercover agent investigating a ring of corrupt cops who have been hijacking armoured trucks on the highway in broad daylight.

Naturally the two are chalk and cheese. Ponch is sex-obsessed but uptight when it comes to close physical contact with the half or wholly naked Baker. Baker is by-the-book, ready to dispense tickets at the slightest offense, whilst Ponch is level-headed but reckless when it involves doing his job and especially when it comes to not accidentally shooting his former partner Clay Allen (Adam Brody). Shepard and Peña make a serviceable enough pair - and it's heartening to see Peña step out from his usual place in the sidelines and take the spotlight, though one wishes it was in a far better vehicle than this - but, in many respects, the more interesting chemistry is between Peña and Brody, who bicker like a couple whose foreplay is fuelled by antagonism.

There's not much else to comment upon since the plot is negligible at best. Vincent D'Onofrio puts in a few minutes of screen time as the bearded baddie, but it's a wasted opportunity since he barely shares any scenes with either Ponch or Baker so any suspense or tension is fostered. Shepard litters the film with homoerotic slapstick - Ponch faceplants into Baker's crotch at one point, don't ask - and lively but strained discussions over whether anal pleasuring is part of the standard practice, but these all just seem so tired and even more dated than the film's source material.

CHiPS

Directed by: Dax Shepard

Written by: Dax Shepard; based on the television series created by Rick Rosner

Starring: Dax Shepard, Michael Peña, Jessica McNamee, Adam Brody, Ryan Hansen, Justin Chatwin, Vincent D'Onofrio, Kristen Bell, Richard T. Jones, Ben Falcone, Maya Rudolph