No, seriously. It really, really does achieve that. In the inglorious line up of badly made cop partner action comedies — Starsky and Hutch, Tango and Cash and large swathes of Bad Boys come to mind —Chips sits right up there. It really is that terrible a film. What's particularly trying, and it's a common complaint when you're watching an R-rated movie in India, is that most of the belching, retching and generally raunchy toilet humour that provides some relief is deftly snipped by the guys at the CBFC. So you're left with a flat film that attempts to run on flatulence.
A reboot of TV series that aired roughly three and a half decades ago, this one ends up being such a bad embarrassment, it made me look upon the foul-mouthed trailer of Baywatch with newfound respect. Personally, I think the blame should more than squarely be laid on Dax Shepard — he of the bad 'dude' movies which we found inexorably funny in our youth.
Dax and Michael Pena team up as a pair of bike cops who train and hit the streets out of bike-cop-academy in California. Dax has relationship worries and has severe emotional issues, which I suspect may have caused him to also direct this film. Pena, who is potentially the only saving grace of this 100-minute ordeal, tries to sneak in a few laughs here and there, but keeps being interrupted by Dax. Other plot points like cars blowing up, plenty of bad chick jokes and the average gangster razzmatazz also get in the way and the duo do their best to get you laughing.
It works. But it's so far and between and the plot is so stretched thin that all you want to do is go back to the trailer and wonder how things could have gone so wrong. Even if you're hoping for some action of the 'other' kind, usually a staple in comedies of this nature, don't bother - the guys at the censor board have done you in.
Movie | Chips |
| Cast | Michael Pena, Dax Shepard, Vincent D’Onofrio |
| Director | Dax Shepard |
| Rating | 1/5 |
| Verdict | Just plain awful. Will make Tango and Cash reruns seem like an Oscar rerun |