There's a new Chips movie coming out - oh, I'm sorry, I mean CHiPs. It's based on the 70's/80's TV show. Though really, it's not a movie of the TV series, it's a spoof of the series. Though really, it's not a spoof of the series, it's a generic "dumb guys" movie where the characters are named after the ones in the original.
I don't really like this idea of reviving pop-culture artifacts just to make fun of them. No, I wasn't a fan of the original show, nor do I believe that anything is above satire. But we're not talking about an SNL sketch here, we're talking about a movie that probably cost more than the entire series' combined budget, aimed at the children of the people who watched the original. That really seems like kicking them when they're down.
The thinking behind it is transparent: they get the name recognition of an existing property, but don't have to worry about offending or alienating legions of fans. Somewhere out there are people who still take the show seriously, and are probably really angry right now, but it doesn't matter to the studios, since they don't make up much of the movie-going population.
I actually feel a little sorry for them. Sure, they don't have great taste in TV, but they're getting thrown under the bus just because they're aging and few in number. And the fact is that we're all going to be in their position eventually. We all have our guilty pleasures in entertainment, and they'll all make for easy fodder for lazy movies.
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