Up in Smoke (1978)

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

The 1st half of this movie is laugh out loud hysterical but then the last 30 minutes are a complete bore. The 1st and best of the Cheech and Chong series of movies, stars Cheech as a poor Latino-American with nothing much going on other than his low rider car. Chong plays a privileged white hippie dude who doesn't want to do anything but get high. They meet when Chong is hitchhiking and Cheech picks him up. They end up smoking the largest joint that has ever been constructed! When they get pulled over for going 2 mph, the entire car is filled with smoke so thick that you could cut it with a knife. There are a bunch of other funny scenes like when this girl snorts Ajax thinking it's cocaine or how their van's exterior is made completely of weed. The band stuff gets a little boring at the end but the movie as a whole still stands the test of time. Cheech's song "I'm just a Love Ma-cheen" will get stuck in your head.

Cheech and Chong meet up by chance on the highway somewhere in California. They go in search of some dope and are accidentally deported to Mexico where in their desperation to get home they agree to drive a van back to the States so they can get back in time for a gig they are due to play. Unaware of the properties from which the van is constructed they make their way back having acquired a couple of female hitch-hikers whilst all the time avoiding the cops whom they are not even aware are following them. Tonight I Decided To Give The Mother Of All Stoner Comedies A Go. This Is Not Just The Mother Of Stoner Comedies...Its The Father Of Dumb Comedies. I Loved Every Minute Of It...I Was Adimant Not To Turn The TV Off When Cheech & Chong Smoked Dog Crap That Came From A Dog That Ate Chong's Marjuana...I'm Laughing Now As I Type It Up.I Also Have Some Of Their Recordings Like "Dave", "Up In Smoke"(I Was Familiar With The Movie Before Tonight), I Even Had "Earache My Eye" Which Is My Personal Favourite So I Didn't Mind Hearing It In This Film But I Would've Loved It Even More If After The End Credits The Sketch That Goes With Earache My Eye Would Play. I Also Loved The Fact That They Were So Dumb That They Had No Idea The "Hard Hat" Cops Were After Them. Overall If You Like Stoner Comedies In The Same Vein As The Kevin Smith Comedies Of...Well His Entire Career Than This Movie Is Definitely One To Buy.

Richard "Cheech" Marin and Tommy Chong debuted their Mary-Jane fueled humor with Up In Smoke. While Reefer Madness was the first notable film to promote weed, it's this film that set the template for stoner films.Not really much of a plot here: Pedro De Pacas (Marin) meets up with rich-kid Anthony "Man" Stoner (Chong) and find out they both like getting high. Their search for pot takes them all over Los Angeles and Tijuana in a wacky road-trip in a car unknowingly made out of grass.On their trip, they have to deal with Sgt. Sedenko (Stacy Keach), an over-zealous police officer trying to clean L.A. of druggies.The movie is filled with crazy situations: drug-filled parties, performances at a punk rock contest and a trip through a upholstery factory that is just a front for drug trafficking. Crazy people, the kind you would expect in a film like this, are everywhere.Both Marin and Chong are very good in the film but Keach steals the show. He is an absolute hoot in this film and he comes off as the most interesting character in the film.It's still very entertaining to this day as a curiosity piece. Check it out.BTW, one of the ladies Pedro and Man picks up looks remarkably like Sharon Snow of NTV.

I added to my collection the Double Feature DVD with Up in Smoke and Still Smokin like two months ago but just last night I finally saw the first one so also last night was my very first "encounter" with Cheech and Chong and for sure won't be the last. So here Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong are Pedro and Anthony (his father call him Anthony yet in the credits Tommy Chong is just "man") respectively and basically they will meet just by pure causality. We have the sort of introduction and we see a moment with each one, we see the first funny moment with Pedro pissing and on the other hand we have the classic situation of a guy who at the age of what 30 or something still lives with his parents, certainly the father is just tired of having his lazy son doing about nothing during the entire day. Both Pedro and Anthony are out with cars yet only Pedro will be able to continue driving, to continue looking for a lost babe or maybe babes but he will have only kind of a really big disappointment but after all there he meets who will be his best friend. Certainly these two have a lot in common but mainly two things will keep them together: drugs and rock and roll. Is just amazing and hilarious the first joint they smoke together, Pedro was like "I been smoking since always, I can smoke anything" but the Led Zeppelin is something else, heavy s***, dog s***! And that s*** will give them some troubles and certainly we will laugh and laugh. Up in Smoke is one of those movies that are just so damn enjoyable since the very first second till the very last, essentially Pedro and Anthony are just looking out for some s*** but of course things will happen. The police play here a big role, they will be close to Pedro, Anthony and company and they deliver also a lot of fun. We have the police chief and three of his "sons" (is also a great "show" with this guys, of course the one who will suffer most is the chief, he even loses his dog that was the best cop he ever saw!), they are after those who are transporting a really big quantity of drug from Mexico to the US, they will be after "two hippies with a van". And certainly we know who those hippies are, we know that the van they are driving would be a damn treasure for them but they don't know, actually they don't know a damn thing. Is really funny what Pedro's cousin (not sure is his cousin but sure is a relative) do to get a free ride to Tijuana, very funny and Pedro and Anthony will be in Mexico also and in THE van they will return to the US. At one point we know what will happen with the van if the police finds it, actually is not that different to what will happen with the van if Pedro and Anthony realize about the truth. By this time our dudes have company, finally the company of women and now they have another thing in mind: the battle of the bands at the Roxy. And will be for a moment like a little Monterey or Woodstock, every single soul in the place was connected! Those like me who saw first the great Coen brothers film The Big Lebowski (that is my second favourite Coen bros film) certainly will remember it. Terrific fun with these two DUDES!