An FBI agent goes undercover in the California Highway Patrol as officer Frank "Ponch" Poncherello. Members of the CHP have been robbing cash delivery vehicles and his job is to uncover the perpetrators. At the CHP he is partnered with a 30-something rookie, Jon Baker. Baker is a former professional motorcycle rider with a list of ailments and personal problems who is lucky to be in the CHP. They are very different people and immediately clash. Jon Baker (Shepard) and Frank Ponch Poncherello (Peña) have just joined the California Highway Patrol (CHP) in Los Angeles, but for very different reasons. Baker is a beaten-up former pro motorbiker trying to put his life and marriage back together. Poncherello is a cocky undercover Federal agent investigating a multi-million dollar heist that may be an inside-job inside the CHP. The inexperienced rookie and the hardened pro are teamed together, but clash more than click, so kick-starting a real partnership is easier said than done. But with Baker's unique bike skills and Ponch's street savvy it might just work…if they don't drive each other crazy first. "CHIPS" is a new 100-minute film from this year (2017) and this one is the newest work by writer and director Dax Shepard, who also shows up as an actor in here, actually as one of the two protagonists, which should not surprise anybody really as this is probably still his main profession. Before I go on about the movie, let me say that I have never seen the Golden-Globe nominated television show this is based on, so I am entirely judging this film as a standalone movie and not talk about parallels or differences compared to the show I just mentioned. Okay, that's just to make my position clear. Now back to the film: Honestly I thought this wasn't a good watch at all. Pena occasionally elevated the weak material, especially in the first half and here and there there is also a solid moment comedy-wise. So the film is not a failure as a whole. But it does have many disappointing aspects. First of all, I am a great D'Onofrio fan and seeing him as the main villain in here made me curious. But his character is so poorly written that he really can add nothing. The story depicting him as a loving father never brought any emotion at all and he is basically eventually nothing but a ruthless brute with no character development or memorability at all. Such a shame. The plot twist near the end with one female character being his accomplice was honestly a bad joke really.<br/><br/>And here we already have talk about one female character that is written poorly and while criticisms about badly written female character are sometimes feminist nonsense, it is very true for this movie here. Then again, the male characters weren't really written any better. The film tries to deliver from all kinds of perspectives, but it fails in almost all of them. The action felt all for the sake of it, not just the severed head, the friendship component between the two "heroes" never feels authentic and Shepard's usual cool/fool acting routine gets repetitive and unlikable fairly quickly. It was also painfully obvious how inferior he is to Pena. They tried to hide it by giving Shepard really mostly comedy material, but it wasn't working. And the story as a whole is nothing worth watching either. Lets be honest here: Had the film ended by Hernandez kicking Jon out as it would have happened in 100% of the cases in reality this would have been a good thing as the film would have ended quickly right away and I guess fans of the original series would have liked it. Looking at other works by Shepard and their critical reception, it is probably not too surprising that it did not turn into a quality watch here. However, it is also not Razzie material, not that bad. I don't know if it was a commercial success with audiences, but I would not be too surprised either if they decide to make a sequel at some point. "They" means Shepard in this case and if he goes for it I must say I am really not curious and I'd be surprised if it turns out better than this one here. Okay, that is all I guess. This 2017 film here gets a thumbs-down from me. Not recommended. What the dam was this movie even about? The story line made no sense what so ever Don't waste your time with this movie, it has nothing to do with the chips TV series.. The acting was awful, and there where to many people involved that were never explained or introduced properly.. Half of this movie i was questing weather i was insane or high So much dumb stuff that made no sense Spoilers! who was that dude in the swat car, and what was his contribution to the movie? like what the heck. Also how and why did the new guy know who reed junior was? Why the heck was the other dude transferred in the first place? And the thing about his old (dead?) partner? what… This movie was a total sh*t show… how does this have a 5.8 rating is beyond my comprehension.. Please please please, don't waste your time and/or money on this sh*t show of a movie The humor is way more miss than hit, prone to the kind of raunch (analingus debates, homophobia teasing, who’s-hot-who’s-not) that feels available, not thought-out, and pain gags that don’t get funnier the more they’re repeated.
Reilkarle replied
355 weeks ago