CHIPS (15)
Directed By: Dax Shepard
Starring: Dax Shepard, Michael Peña, Vincent D’Onofrio
Running Time: 1hr 40mins
A wannabe California Highway Patrol officer is teamed with a hardened pro, who turns out to be an undercover FBI agent investigating a series of daring heists involving crooked cops.
Depending on who you ask the buddy cop format is either a tried and tested set up or an outdated retreading that should have stayed dead in the 1980s. After all, for every Lethal Weapon there’s a dozen Cop Out‘s. But where does Dax Shepard’s latest attempt at laughs land on that scale?
Very low, you’re probably not surprised to hear.
CHIPS has been getting a serious pounding when it comes to reviews. At times this is justified, from the film’s odd running jokes that lead nowhere to its attempts at throwing as many gags as it can in quick succession in the hopes that at least some of them land. It is, at times, a messy drag of a viewing experience.
That isn’t to say it should be shunned. It’s confident when its toilet humour – not always a bad thing to have in a movie – is at its grossest and Dax gels with co-star Michael Peña very well. It’s a real odd couple we have here, and although their relationship doesn’t tread anywhere we haven’t been a thousand times before they are at their funniest playing off each other.
You don’t need to be told that Peña shines. If you saw Ant-Man (let’s face it, you’re on this site, of course you saw Ant-Man) or War On Everyone you know how good he can be. In fact, the latter – a certain review of which I’m just gonna leave here, okay? – is a much more confident, all round funnier buddy cop film. You should probably just watch it instead.
2 out of 5 Nerds
Marc
Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….
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