‘CHIPS’ Red-Band Trailer: Get Ready for Adventure (And Butt Jokes)
The California Highway Patrol became internationally famous in the 1970s thanks to CHiPs, an NBC TV series following the adventures of two patrolmen, played by Erik Estrada and Larry Wilcox. Though the show mostly faded into obscurity, it’s getting a big-screen revival this year as CHIPS, a bigger, louder, lewder version written by, directed by, and starring Dax Shepard, with the versatile and talented Michael Peña as Estrada’s character Ponch.
The old CHiPs was fun for the whole family; the new CHIPS is definitely not, unless your whole family is a bunch of disreputable vulgarians. The new red-band trailer features plenty of action and more profanity in three minutes than I’d wager was featured in the entirety of CHiPs’ six seasons.
Here’s the official plot synopsis:
Jon Baker and Frank “Ponch” Poncherello have just joined the California Highway Patrol (CHP) in Los Angeles but for very different reasons. Baker is a beaten up pro motorbiker trying to put his life and marriage back together. Poncherello is a cocky undercover Federal agent investigating a multi-million dollar heist that may be an inside job—inside the CHP. The inexperienced rookie and hardened pro are teamed together, but clash more than click, so kickstarting a partnership is easier said than done. But with Baker’s bike skills combined with Ponch’s street savvy it might just work…if they don’t drive each other crazy along the way.
Comparisons to the 21 Jump Street movies are inevitable (and seem pretty on the point), but the one area where CHIPS could potentially distinguish itself is in the realm of action. There hasn’t been a really good motorcycle movie in a long time (where have you gone Biker Boyz, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you). If Shepard can find the right balance of humor and stunts, he could have a winner here.
CHIPS (not spelled CHiPs like the old show, which had slightly less talk about unusual sexual activities) opens in theaters on March 24.