Customer Reviews

C.H.O.M.P.S.

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was a pleasant movie that I haven't seen in years.. Very good family movie. Valerie Bertinelli looks so young. I didn't realize the other character was the boy from "Land of the Lost"

I loved this movie when I was a kid. I even named my first dog Chomps. Recently I bought the dvd and watched it for the first time in 20 years. It's awful. Bad acting, mediocre story, lame special effects (to be expected for the time period), I couldn't even get my 6yr old nephew to sit through it. If you've never seen it, do yourself a favor and rent it before you buy it.

Just how bad is "C.H.O.M.P.S."? It is sooooo bad it crosses that mythical line from Unwatchable to So-Bad-It's-Good by the end of the opening credits.
Sure, you may decide to rent "C.H.O.M.P.S." because you maybe remember catching it when you were a kid, or you may rent "C.H.O.M.P.S." to see Valerie Bertinelli in her "One Day at a Time" hey-day or Wesley Eure fresh from the set of "Land of the Lost", but the reason you will stick with this chunk of 70's cheese, is that it is so mind numbingly idiotic, you will become too fascinated to turn it off.
The basic storyline is that an inventor creates a robotic crime fighting dog. He works for a security firm run by Conrad Bain, and just happens to be dating the owner's daughter. Two inept criminals (Red Buttons, Chuck McCann) try to steal the invention for rival security company boss Jim Backus.
The hilarity begins with the inept criminals, followed by the grumpy mutt next door named "Monster" who makes "witty" comments throughout the film, and to top it off you get the wonderful 1970's special effects which are supposed to be amusing, but are downright creepy and terrifying. First the inventor basically decapitates the hapless puppy to demonstrate it's robotics, the vision of the dog's disembodied head resting on the inventor's table is pretty creepy. Add to that, whenever "C.H.O.M.P.S" receives a new command, his eyes light up with this demonic red glow giving him a nightmare inducing Dog-From-Hell appearance. Plus you get plenty of Slo-Mo running with Bionic Man sound effects!!
Top all of this off with a musical score created by Hanna-Barbera mainstay Hoyt Curtin, toss in some typical 70's cartoon sound effects, and you have one whopper of an awful film.
Seriously, if you love bad movies as I do, then "C.H.O.M.P.S." is a must see.

C.H.O.M.P.S. is the story of a robot dog who appears cute and cuddly but has actually been programmed to fight crime! It's the kind of movie we would all like to make, if we had access to various locations in Los Angeles, a camera, a dog, and Valerie Bertinelli.

Somehow I've missed seeing this film for some 25 years. I think maybe I was confusing it with another robot film titled with an exceptionally long acronym, D.A.R.Y.L. Having recently seen C.H.O.M.P.S., I think it's safe to assume that this was supposed to be some kind of vehicle for Valerie Bertinelli, however she ends up having a very diminutive role in the film. In a surprising twist, the *DOG* really is the lead role! One has to wonder why they didn't get Benji for the lead, considering the obvious resemblance. Maybe Benji reviewed the script and decided he had some degree of humility. You've probably heard of some of the other cast members if you were alive in the mid-70's, most notably Jim Backus (Gilligan's Island) and, umm, that guy who played the son in Land of the Lost.

I give this film two stars. One because it has something very few other films have: Valerie Bertinelli. The other star is for remining me how happy I am the late 70's are over and gone.

no seriously......
Just fast-forward through all of the dialogue/love scenes, and watch the magic unfurl.....

This movie should have had a PG rating on this film. I saw some of this when I was 8 years old. When Brian would take the dog's head off, I would scream out for my mom and then start to cry. The scenes where his eyes light up could scare little kids... Take it from me, I know...

I would advise parents to pre screen this before letting them see this movie. Seeing this film today still gives me the shakes! and I am now 30! Bed memories die hard....