Review of Nice Dreams

Nice Dreams (1981)
2/10
Lesson #1 - Stream of Consciousness Only Works for Kafka
20 August 2010
Warning: Spoilers
The third Cheech and Chong movie. To me it was obvious that these guys had only a limited script when filming this movie. The charm, and I do mean charm of Up in Smoke is so not evident here. It was almost like these guys said, "We'll do a scene with two hot girls in a car and a 600 pound dad, and it will be funny." "We'll go to a pot farm where the owner is wonderfully bizarre and it will be funny." "We'll film two helicopters over nude sunbathers, and it will be funny." One reviewer said he thought that the main characters were high when they made this movie. I don't think that, I just think they got lazy. Great comedy is hard work. It is OK to be spontaneous, but it is really easy to fall into a trap. The trap is, we've made people laugh in the past, everything we do is funny, so we don't need to work.

Strangely enough, the best scene in the movie is when they break into the insane asylum and wake up with the crazy inmates in their faces. The people in the asylum genuinely freak both Cheech and Chong out. The inmates looked real and filming with a fish-eye lens adds to the effect.

The scene with Timothy Leary makes no sense to a modern audience. It's just not funny, and strangely sad. Did he need the paycheck? The scene in the restaurant is terrible. One gripe. The women in "girl band" are a bunch of hounds. These guys were millionaires when they filmed the movie. Why didn't they cast smoking hot girls in their films by then? I mean hasn't anybody heard of a casting couch? But I digress.

Another Gripe. Pee-Wee Herman (Pre-Pee) reminded me of why I hate him. Either you think he's funny or isn't. I never got him.

The ending was terrible. It was like OK - we got the money back, but we're Stoners so we lose it and now we'll be male strippers and that will be funny? The only reason I can't give this movie a 1 is the Kafka-esquire scenes. The lizard/Sergeant scenes, and the nut-house scenes make this worth a view on a "bad movie" night at your house. I got this tape for 10c at a garage sale. I wouldn't pay more than a quarter for the movie, but if you can get it for that, go for it.
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