Nerds That Geek Movie Review: 'CHIPS'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

​In this era of remakes and reboots, I’ve often found myself to be quite tolerant of them, simply due to the fact that these new iterations can inspire people to seek out the original story and enjoy the wonder that it provides, but I do have to admit that my tolerance has its limits. Personally, I feel that there are some stories out there that were in fact perfection upon release and revamping them is the cinematic form of blasphemy and one such franchise that I feel falls into that category is the 1970’s TV series, CHiPs.
 
Now, I’m certain a few of you out there just rolled your eyes over having me use the word ‘perfection’ in conjunction with the title of a show about motorcycle cops but hear me out for a moment. Because by no means do I think the show itself was perfect. It was hammy, cheesy and goofy and fun, and it perfectly fit the zeitgeist of the times by focusing the on the 70’s mantra of keeping life loose and silly and really, it was lightning in a bottle. No one will ever be able to re-capture that slice of time like the series did, nor should they make an attempt to, but it certainly didn’t stop Hollywood from trying and failing miserably to do so with the 2017 release of CHIPS.
 
With that being said, let’s get this out in the open right now, this is a bad motion picture, but not for the reasons you might think. Because often times when a remake is panned, it’s due to the fact that it is too radical a departure from the original material, and while there are definitely some big changes here to the CHiPs universe since Ponch technically isn’t even Ponch, that’s the least of the film’s problems, and one of those glaring issues is the fact that this movie is clueless as to what it wants to be. Is it a comedy? A police drama? An action flick? I honestly have no idea because all of those elements are present in this film in jumbled order and well, that confusion alone should serve as a solid reason as to why this movie turned out so rough, but there are other issues that overshadow that one, like the fact that the movie is unoriginal through and through.
 
There’s nothing here that you haven’t seen before and that just makes for a boring experience, and to make matters worse, this movie borrows from just about every single police story out there. Just pick a trope, or a memorable moment from your favorite police related tales and you’ll spot it on screen and perhaps the greatest crime of all that this film commits, is the fact that the comedy elements here are woefully unfunny. Sure, there are a few chuckle worthy moments, but when one considers that this film was marketed as a comedy, it’s a problem when the jokes don’t land and worst of all…it relies heavily on homophobic humor and outright dick jokes to get a laugh out of the audience and none of it works in the slightest.
 
Which is a shame, because this movie features a fantastic cast composed of veteran comedians and dramatic talent and all of them are wasted in this mess of a story and really, while it would be easy to blame the writer and director of this film, Dax Shepard, who also plays Jon Baker, I think the onus here has to be placed upon the studio. Because there is no way that a show that truly embodied the 70’s could have ever been brought into the 21st Century without some serious work on the script and well, that’s the real issue here, the fact that this is a story that was rushed into production and the end result is an utter catastrophe. So really, avoid this one at all costs and if you’re curious about CHiPs and what it’s all about, just stick to the original, you’ll be glad you did. 

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