Those who remember the original 1970s TV show know CHiPs stands for California Highway Patrol, or cops on big bikes. Jon Baker (Dax Shepard), a painkiller-addicted, former BMX star turned rookie cop, is teamed with Frank “Ponch” Poncherello (Michael Pena), a seasoned pro, and homophobic sex-addict, with a habit of shooting his own partners to save them.
If you enjoyed the knockabout romp of the far superior 21 Jump Street big-screen outing, then you might dig the scattershot fun of a film that jettisons plot and character, in favour of stunts, gunplay, and gross-out laughs.
Writer/Director/Co-star Dax Shepard shoots his action with assuredness, and his foulmouthed comedy scenes with glee, but fumbles when it comes to dramatic moments, which sit about as comfortably as furry dice on a Harley. Casting Vincent D’Onofrio means any mystery or suspense as to who might be the bad guy are dumped and, Kristen Bell aside as Baker’s estranged wife, there’s little place for women in this macho world of bikes, guns and buddy-cop-bonding, in what amounts to yet another generic, lazily scripted, Lethal Weapon knock-off.
Fans of the TV show will likely find this portion of CHiPs about as far from the source as the Starsky & Hutch movie. Fans of broad, violent, un-pc action-comedy will find plenty to enjoy, but with easy laughs at the expense of consistent characterisation, or coherent plotting, it’s hard to care about anything save the next shoot-out, chase, explosion, or bad-taste gag.
