Chop Chop has a pretty killer hook, pun intended. Chuck (Jake Taylor) and Liv (Atala Arce) are having a lovely evening in when there’s a knock on the door. Teddy (David Harper) greets Liv, saying he has a pizza for this address. But, the couple did not order any food, as they cooked for their date night. As such, she rebuffs the delivery driver and closes the door. But, the man is on the couch when Liv reenters the living room, having seemingly walked through the walls. He attacks her, but Chuck gets the assailant from behind. Teddy dies in the ensuing struggle.
Instead of alerting the cops, they decide to dispose of the body, calling in a favor from someone with a vast reach in the underworld. However, at their first stop, a cop who was investigating Teddy as a serial killer gets close to the truth, so they have to take him out as well. Now, with each stop to discard the ever-increasing body count, Chuck and Liv encounter more and more hostile people, intent to kill them. However, the secretive couple knows their way around weapons and creeps alike.
“…with each stop to discard the ever-increasing body count, Chuck and Liv encounter more and more hostile people, intent to kill them.”
Rony Patel makes his feature-length directorial debut with Chop Chop, from a script he wrote alongside Andrew Ericksen. Sadly, the director’s inexperience shines through in several ways. For starters, despite the pitch being rife with possibilities, most of the action takes place off-screen or is over so quickly that it is not invigorating in the least. Whether this was to save money on the budget or just try to stand out, I am uncertain, but it was the wrong decision.
Why was it such a bad idea? Mainly because it just leaves a lot of staring and low-key conversations as the main thing to focus on. Well, focus would imply that there is a way to understand the happenings of the movie, as though it’s telling the narrative coherently. No, Patel decides to use chapters with names like “Teddy” and “Brother” that hint at an idea of what is going on. For example, the super-powered (?) serial killer has a twin brother, thus “Brother.” But they don’t offer much beyond confusing the viewer. When the first chapter, only 4-minutes or so, ends (“Teddy”), and “The Matthews” begins, it is on the same people from the first heading. See, Liv and Chuck are introduced in the “Teddy” chapter, leading me to believe that actor Jake Taylor’s character was named Teddy… then all of a sudden, he is not. And the new chapter is just a direct continuation of the last one, so what gives?
"…a bad Tarantino ripoff..."
