‘Chips’ Has Been Rebooted as a Comedy and the First Trailer Is Hilarious

Jon and Ponch are back!

In the late ’70s and early ’80s, CHiPs was a cop drama staple on NBC. It had its tongue-in-cheek moments, but the stories of California Highway motorcycle patrolmen Jon Baker (Larry Wilcox) and Frank “Ponch” Poncherello (Erik Estrada) were generally pretty serious. Now Ponch and Jon are back in a new movie being played by Michael Peña and Dax Shepard, and the creators of CHIPS have doubled down on the funny stuff. (Sounds kind of like what they’re doing with the new Baywatch flick.)

In the movie, which acts as a sort of origin story, Baker is a battered pro biker who believes he can only save his marriage by becoming a patrol officer. Ponch is a fed who has gone undercover in the Highway Patrol to look into a robbery that may have been committed by CHP officers. 

What follows is a classic team-up between wily pro and grasping rookie, one that doesn’t go easily for either man—at least at first. 

CHIPS has plenty of road action, explosions and squirm-inducing jokes about accidentally bumping packages with other dudes, and it looks like a hell of a lot of fun. It roars into theaters on March 24.