Aside from the name, the movie “CHIPS” has almost nothing in common with “CHiPS,” the television show. The series, which ran from 1977 to 1983, was a goofy, family-friendly drama about a couple of California Highway Patrol officers who never drew their guns. The new R-rated update is a raunchy comedy rife with bare breasts and masturbation jokes, plus severed fingers and a decapitation.
Even series star Larry Wilcox had some concerns about the remake. After seeing the trailer, he told the Associated Press that it looked like “a soft-porn version of ‘Dumb and Dumber.’ “Charitable to a fault, he was still willing to give it a chance: “I hear the actors are both very talented and funny, so maybe it all works.”
It doesn’t.
Here, Dax Shepard (who also wrote and directed) takes on Wilcox’s role as motorcycle cop Jon Baker. He’s a former motocross star with the surgery scars and titanium plates to prove it. Although he can’t shoot straight and he’s not very limber, he nevertheless passes his police exam, based on nothing more than his wheelie skills and kind eyes. Jon gets partnered with Frank “Ponch” Poncherello (Michael Pe?a, taking over the role that made Erik Estrada famous), who’s actually an undercover FBI agent trying to smoke out some dirty cops.
Those shady officers — including one played by Vincent D’Onofrio, acting even more like a “Scooby Doo” villain than he did in “Jurassic World” — are responsible for a string of heists around Los Angeles that have left armored cars empty, and at least one police officer dead. So once Jon and Ponch get over their differences — de rigueur in a plot this formulaic — they team up to hunt down the crooked crew, which is conveniently made up of speedy motorcycle tricksters. The plot is little more than an excuse to go from one badly edited chase scene to the next.
