CHIPS (2017) * *

Directed by:  Dax Shepard

Starring:  Dax Shepard, Michael Pena, Vincent D'Onofrio, Kristen Bell, Jessica McNamee, Adam Brody, Maya Rudolph, Rosa Salazar

CHIPS is yet another adaptation of a 1970s TV show.    I'm eagerly awaiting WKRP in Cincinnati, but it isn't in the works to my knowledge.     These movies are hit and miss.    When they hit, like with Starsky & Hutch (2004), they create comedy gold.    When they miss, like CHIPS, they scatter a few chuckles, but ultimately fade from memory about ten minutes after leaving the theater.

Written and directed by Dax Shepard, who also plays one of the two leads, CHIPS is content with eventually taking the low road and ratcheting up the gross-out humor.     The humor, even by gross-out standards, is gruesome.     One character has three fingers shot off and the other evades a hail of gunfire to retrieve them.    Another scene fulfills the quota of homoerotic humor present in many comedies these days, in which Ponch's (Pena) mouth accidentally comes into contact with Jon's (Shepard) genitals.     I won't explain how this comes to pass, but it is contrived to say the least.

The plot itself is a flimsy excuse to showcase unexciting chases, explosions, and gunplay.    Many of the up-close shots of the motorcycle riders are shot in something similar to Queasi-Cam.     This is a distracting style choice.     I felt like I was watching a Jackass episode at times.     CHIPS also wastes Shepard and Pena, leaving them to lean heavily on their likability to carry the day.    It nearly does in some spots.     We feel sympathy for Jon, a former pro motorcyclist who has had 23 surgeries for various cycling injuries.    He joins the California Highway Patrol in hopes of winning back the love and respect of his cold, estranged wife (Bell), who makes Jon stay in the guest house while she openly carries on a relationship with another guy.     Jon is a wreck physically and not entirely bright, but is allowed to join the force on a probationary basis.

Pena is Ponch, an FBI agent assigned undercover to the patrol to smoke out corrupt cops who run a drug smuggling operation.     The rogue unit is led by Ray (D'Onofrio), whose own son is addicted to heroin, which lends a certain gravitas to the proceedings.     It is too bad the movie doesn't choose to flesh out this duality and instead keeps making jokes about Ponch's sex addiction.   Is it just easier to default to crude humor than it is to create funny situations out of characters?    CHIPS believes yes and it suffers because of this choice.  

It is a pity because the movie has an energetic first half, while the second half bogs itself down and goes on autopilot.     The movie follows the formula of new partners' initial dislike, followed by a truce, and then becoming friends (only after a fight which nearly ends their friendship just as it's getting started).     Like mostly everything else in CHIPS, this is done by rote also.