Chips is an action comedy film directed by Dax Shepard; it serves as a revival of the classic TV series of the same name. The plot sees two troubled officers of the law become entangled in a web of betrayal, lies and a surprisingly large amount of sex. The two mismatched detectives must find out who the bag guy is and stop them, but first they must learn to trust each other.
This film is somewhat of a head scratcher, not because it is deep or clever, no, the reason it is confusing is because the usually bad Dax Shepard is actually somewhat okay and enjoyable, and the always loveable Michael Pena is strangely hateable. A strange turn of events and one that may or may not have been deliberate.
I don’t think anyone was asking for this film, the brand was forgotten, but clearly the people behind the scenes thought this could be the next 21 Jump Street; sadly they were wrong, very wrong. Unlike the aforementioned cop comedy, there is no charm here, the jokes feel dated and juvenile; I think I might have laughed once in the whole runtime of the film.
All of the characters barring Shepard’s are deeply unlikable, you don’t care about them at all and when they’re endanger the outcome doesn’t really affect you one way or the other. The one positive thing this film does is it makes you like Dax Shepard. He was heavily involved in making it, so this is almost certainly intentional, but his is the only character in the entire film that we as the audience warm to.
Overall, this feels very needless, it has the sensibilities of a teenager, but isn’t shocking enough to capture their attention. This film really makes you question what goes through the heads of Hollywood executives.
Pros.
Dax Shepard.
One or two laughs.
Cons.
All the other characters.
The humour feels icky and a little over the top at times.
I just didn’t care in the end.
1.5/5
Reviewed by Luke
Another Millennial Reviewer 