CHIPS

Year 13, Day 85 - 3/26/21 - Movie #3,788

BEFORE: Well, I guess it's 1970's revival week here at the Movie Year.  I kicked off the week by name-checking Steve McQueen, then of course came Wonder Woman and Fantasy Island.  What comes after "CHIPS", a revival of "B.J. and the Bear"?  A reboot of "The Greatest American Hero"?  I think I'm only exaggerating slightly, because they brought back "Dynasty" a couple years ago, and I just watched the animated "Addams Family" revival last October, though no sign of the "Munsters" reboot.  You just never know, I think there's some guy in Hollywood who advises CBS on when to bring back shows like "Hawaii Five-O" or "Magnum, P.I." or "MacGyver", I guess there's some kind of alarm that goes off when it's been long enough that people haven't seen anything from a certain franchise in a while, but it hasn't been so long that everyone's completely forgotten about it.  

Michael Peña and Ryan Hansen (again?) carry over from "Fantasy Island". OK, I've never watched the old TV show, but I'm ready for this one, bring it on...oh, wait, Women's History Month. Umm, it's the birthday of Sandra Day O'Connor, first female Supreme Court Justice, born in 1930. And also Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives, born in 1940. And feminist author Erica Jong, born in 1942. OK, let's go...

THE PLOT: A rookie officer at the California Highway Patrol is teamed with a hardened pro, though he soon learns his partner is really an undercover Fed investigating heists that may involve crooked cops.

AFTER: Well, this film sort of has the same problem as "Like a Boss", at least for the first half.  These two cops are supposed to be partners, but they just disagree about everything, over and over again, each one automatically taking up a contrary position to whatever the other one just said.  This wears out VERY quickly as a device, I mean I get that they're two very different people, have two different outlooks on life and such - one's a married former athlete who's very anxious about most things, takes too many vitamins (or something) and the other's a single player who's definitely cooler and more confident, oh, and he's secretly a federal agent who also has a sex addiction.  There's almost TOO much information there, too many character traits to make them stand out.

Thankfully,  they work out their differences rather quickly, I guess guys are just like that, they'll have a beer together or punch each other in the face or shower together and then they're best buds for life - unlike women who pretend to be friends but then constantly argue and undercut each other or steal each other's boyfriends and never forgive each other.  Right?  But these guys, Ponch and Jon, they kind of balance each other out, once they get a read on each other and save each other's lives a couple times.  Also, they punch each other in the face a few times and continue giving each other a hard time, but come on, that's what guys do. 

The film doesn't really give them much of a mystery to solve, but tips its hand to the audience quite early about who the big criminal mastermind is, then we all have to wait while these two motorcycle cops catch up and put the pieces together, and figure out who's knocking off the armored cars, and how many cops are in on the scheme.  Thankfully it's only a few bad apples, but it's still a bit weird to see cops fighting cops at the end.  

Again, never watched the old TV series, so I don't know if any longtime fans will be disappointed by this, finding out that the new "Ponch" isn't even "Ponch", that's just an alias. Or that there isn't much highway patrol being done here, since "Ponch" has a different agenda, while Jon, the department's oldest rookie ever, tries to make his ticket quotas but his partner keeps trying to stop him, because there are bigger fish to fry.  Meanwhile Jon's marriage is crumbling, he's basically an unwanted guest in his own home while the couple "works things out", only his wife has already moved on to working out with somebody else.  If only Jon could get some advice about moving on himself, maybe with that female cop who seems really into him. 

There's nothing really subtle here, everything is really over-the-top , and many coincidences abound when it comes to cracking the case.  Jon's past on the motorbike circuit comes in handy maybe a few too many times, and we maybe end up learning a bit too much about Ponch's kinky personal life.  The highlight for me was Vincent D'Onofrio, he's another one of those actors that I like, if I hear that he's in a movie, I'm at least going to tune it in and check him out, because he's usually good in whatever - "Jurassic World", "Death Wish", "The Magnificent Seven", and as Wilson Fisk in the "Daredevil" TV show.  Of course I followed him through several seasons on "Law & Order: Criminal Intent", before that he was in "Men in Black" and I remember him playing Orson Welles in "Ed Wood". 

Also starring Dax Shepard (last seen in "The Boss"), Vincent D'Onofrio (last seen in "Death Wish"), Rosa Salazar (last seen in "Bird Box"), Jessica McNamee (last seen in "Battle of the Sexes"), Adam Brody (last seen in "Jay and Silent Bob Reboot"), Isiah Whitlock Jr. (last seen in "BlacKkKlansman"), Richard T. Jones (last seen in "Godzilla"), Kristen Bell (last heard in "Frozen II"), Jane Kaczmarek (last seen in "The Chamber"), Jess Rowland, Justin Chatwin (last seen in "We Don't Belong Here"), Vida Guerra, Megalyn Echikunwoke (last seen in "Late Night"), Merrin Dungey, Amanda Perez (last seen in "Don Jon"), Carly Hatter, Andrew Howard, Jackie Tohn (last seen in "A Futile and Stupid Gesture"), Becky Feldman, with cameos from David Koechner (last seen in "A Good Old Fashioned Orgy"), Ed Begley Jr. (last seen in "Book Club"), Ben Falcone (last seen in "Can You Ever Forgive Me?"), Mae Whitman (last seen in "Duck Butter"), Maya Rudolph (last seen in "A Very Murray Christmas"), Josh Duhamel (last seen in "Love, Simon"), Adam Rodriguez (last heard in "Incredibles 2"), Erik Estrada (last heard in "Planes: Fire & Rescue").

RATING: 5 out of 10 traffic cones