CHIPS

US, 2017, 100 minutes, Colour.
Dax Shepard, Michael Peña, Jessica Mc Namee, Adam Brody, Ryan Hansen, Kristin Bell, Jamie Bock, Vincent D’ Onofrio.
Directed by Dax Shepard.

There is no major reason for making your decision to see Chips. In fact, there is really no minor reason either.

Fans of the television series which ran from 1977 to 1983, 139 episodes, may find the skeleton of a plot and the characters they liked but an entirely different take, sometimes tongue in cheek, always suggestive, even vulgar. Contemporary audiences may get something of a kick out of the characters and their adventures but there are so many similar stories in film and television. Somebody remarked that younger audiences these days seem to get a thrill out of crass comedy so this might appeal here.

This is a police-partner, sometimes buddy, though odd couple, who team up, one going undercover in the California Police Highway enforcement to uncover corrupt police who are staging elaborate robberies, laundering money by buying artworks to get them to Mexico. There is violence and also a couple of murders.

The partners are Michael Peña as Ponch, being transferred to California from Florida where he has had some unfortunate incidents, partners being shot, and a predilection for ogling women and becoming involved with them. The other is Dax Shepard as Jon Baker, inept at most things, with a touch of hypochondria, hopeless at shooting but a star champion in riding a motorbike. He’s also rather obsessive in his interpretation of the law. Needless to say the obsessive tangles with the freewheeling causing all kinds of clashes and, again needless to say, their beginning to understand each other and help solve the crimes.

Vincent D' Onofrio is the arch villain, the police chief behind the robberies, along with other members of the force – including some twists in revealing characters.

Despite the pressures and the efforts of the corrupt police, Ponch still has his roving eye and several of his female police workers are more than willing to be roved upon.

Jon Baker's alienated wife is played by Kristin Bill, Dax Shepard’s wife in real life.

This version of Chips won’t enhance the popularity of the original television series and a further film, Chips 99. It is certainly not an enhancing kind of film.