'CHiPs' Is Trashy but Tolerable

Sometimes, I have tolerance for bad comedies.  That’s what happened when I watched CHiPs.

CHiPs  is a buddy cop action comedy directed, written, and starring Dax Shepard, whom I only know for being the husband of Kristen Bell (who also plays his wife in the movie), an actress I’ve adored because of playing the character Veronica Mars.  Shepard co-stars with Michael Peña (who has proven to be a talented, likable actor in films like End of Watch, Fury, and Ant-Man) as they respectively play Jon Baker, a former motocross daredevil who decides to join the California Highway Patrol (CHP) to impress his wife and fix their marriage, and Frank "Ponch" Poncherello, an FBI agent working undercover as a CHP officer.  The two become partners and have to set aside their differences and tolerate each other’s foibles in order to catch a crew of corrupt CHP cops working as armed robbers.

Being an adaptation of an old cop TV series of the same name, CHiPs is obviously trying to replicate the success of 21 Jump Street.  However, though there’s some chemistry between its leads – just like between Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill in 21 Jump Street – it doesn’t have the same surprisingly clever, hilarious quality of comedy.  It’s simply one of those trashy, middling comedy films released in every year.

That said, I’m not gonna say that I wasn’t entertained when I watched it.  I actually was, to a certain degree.  It was because I was in one of those “relaxed and apathetic” moods perfect for enjoying bad movies.  So I had more fun with it than I should.

CHiPs has some chuckles.  But it only offers the bare minimum of a serviceable comedy film.