A badly written rib cracker

The Sunday Mail

“Chips” is hardly a film that screams credibility.
But given the trash that has come out with regularity this year, we aren’t really spoilt for choice when it comes to film and television. My only solace is that in seven months, God willing, I will finally get to see Danai Gurira again when “Black Panther” comes out.

Back to “Chips”. This is an American buddy cop film based on the ‘80s TV series of the same name created by Rick Rosner. “Chips” follows FBI agent Castillo (Michael Peña), who goes undercover with the California Highway Patrol to root out dirty cops. Castillo, using the cover name Frank Poncherello, is assigned former bike riding champion turned rookie cop Jon Baker (Dax Shepard) as his partner.

It is easy to critique a film like “Chips”. You can take the movie for what it is — a bit of fun. Or you can moan and groan about some wasted performances, the predictable plot and the crude humour. Peña has always shown great promise, and it has been a shame to see him relegated to supporting roles for so long.

So it’s good to see him as the front man, delivering his punchlines with an ease that is a marvel.  He has shades of Anthony Jessenik. I don’t mean this in any below the belt kind of way. Rather, Peña is so cool it seems like even the most mundane thing  the scriptwriters throw at him becomes a joke. Shepard, who writes and directs the film, gave himself too many lines; lines that would have been better off being left out. He should have shut up more and basked in the glory of standing next to Peña. The writing for the supporting cast is also off.

Maya Rudolph is sidelined, Adam Brody is a victim of atrocious scripting, and Kirsten Bell is mere eye-candy.
With all the bad writing, how then did I get to enjoy “Chips”.  Apart from Peña — of course — we finally get to see a believable villain.

Vincent D’Onofrio’s Ray Kutz character is totally menacing and nails the performance as a bad guy who is not bad just for the sake of being bad. There is a method to Kutz’s badness. And he only kills when it is necessary. Only the Joker in the “Dark Knight” is allowed to kill for fun!