Nice Dreams (1981) User Reviews

Cheech and Chong's third film: Nice Dreams.

[Captain_Couth · 7/10 · 17 August 2005]

Nice Dreams (1981) was the second sequel to UP IN SMOKE. The lovable burned out slackers are selling "ice cream". But there nothing more than a front for there drug dealing (pot what else?). Sargent Stedanko is back from UP IN SMOKE. He's no longer the same straight laced cop. Stedanko has turned into the very element he's been trying to catch. The duo is stashing away some smoke for a rainy day. They want to pull off one big score so they could retire in the "tropics". Unfortunately, Sargent Stedanko and his motley crew of narcs want to bust them and lock 'em up forever. Can Cheech and Chong "retire" in luxury? Will Stedanko finally bust them? What will happen to the duo when they stray away from their favorite drug and experiment with others? How does the good doctor Timothy Leary fit into the picture? Watch NICE DREAMS and you'll find out!!

Another funny film from the team of Cheech and Chong. I find it to be hilarious. Not a classic by any means. Just a funny movie that stars everyone's favorite stoners.

Recommended.

More high times from Cheech and Chong

[gibbog · 7/10 · 21 April 2005]

"Nice Dreams" has Cheech and Chong cruising around selling their unique 'ice cream'. Realizing they have made a ton of money, they go about trying to figure out what to do with their newfound wealth.

Along the way they encounter a crazy music agent who thinks Chong is Jerry Garcia, a coked-out Pee Wee Herman, Cheech's ex-love interest Donna and her old man Animal, who just happens to hate Mexicans.

On par "Cheech And Chongs Next Movie", "Nice Dreams" has some genuinely funny moments, such as Cheech getting stuck on top of the glass elevator naked, and when Cheech is locked away in the nut house. (Timothy Leary has a cameo as a drug-dispensing doctor.)

Wasted in this film was Stacy Keach as Sgt. Stedanko. He was awesome in "Up In Smoke", but has little to do here but smoke pot and turn into a lizard. Yes you read that right.

In my opinion, after "Up In Smoke", C&C never managed to hit the same level of success. Overall a fun movie, but not up to the level of previous efforts.

Rating: 7 out of 10

not as good as I remembered in 1981

[noahk · 5/10 · 19 November 2001]

I saw this one in the theater when it came out in 1981.. I was 10 or 11 years old and I just loved it. Although I don't think I had seen it since, as a big fan of Cheech and Chong, I ordered the DVD from Columbia House to fulfill my membership obligation, since it was the only Cheech & Chong movie they had available.

Well it did not quite match what I remembered, I'm sorry to say. It was rather unpolished and unfocused, making the classic "Up in Smoke" seem like an Oscar winner in comparison. Despite an unforgettable performance from Pee Wee Herman and some laughs (if you're already a fan of C&C), this is one you can probably skip.

High grade stuff

[Marquis-79 · 8 October 2002]

I found Cheech and Chong's "Nice Dreams" a well crafted piece work. Not only are Cheech and Chong's performances very strong, they are also backed by a strong supporting cast, including Paul Rubens and Stacy Keech. Not as good as some of their earlier work but still high grade stuff, in my opinion.

Keep on dreaming.

[lost-in-limbo · 6/10 · 26 February 2006]

Cheech and Chong run an ice cream business called Nice Dreams, which actually is a cover for them to sell their special blend of dope. Soon after reaching a considerable amount of cash they decide to retire for a relaxing life on their own island with all the girls they want. But before this dream can become reality, they have to elude the cops led by the Sarge Stedanko who will stop at nothing to get their hands on them. All of this leads to many unplanned confrontations and actions that don't always workout for the best.

The third film of the series is a really spaced-out stoner comedy (even more so then the first two flicks) from the comical duo Cheech and Chong. This one is more spaced-out because it throws in some surreal moments into fodder. I thoroughly enjoyed the first two outings, sure nothing will beat the memorable "Up In Smoke", but I thought they slightly out did themselves here compared to their previous outing "Next Movie" and that could be attributed to Stacy Keach returning as Sarge Stedanko too. It was great to see that Sarge and his man are on the trail again. Though, I wish there was a bit more screen time for Keach.

Everything about this one seems more silly and absurd, especially the scenes involving how anyone, or anything that smokes their strong weed will turn into a lizard. The whole concept is purely stoner humour! The film doesn't have much in a way of narrative, but more so comical episodes. But that's what you expect anyway. Something is always happening with Cheech and Chong getting in all sorts of mayhem and also meeting buoyant and irregular characters along the way. One of those characters involves a whacked out doctor and Paul Ruben's performance as Howie Hamburger Dude adds to the laughs too. The humour is required taste, definitely. It throws in many sexual and drug related gags. Sure, some of the jokes and gimmicks are crude, messy, coarse and fall flat, but the pair works off each other perfectly well with their fluid timing that you seem to let it all go. They alone can carry a film. It moves along rather quickly, which helps considerably too and there's a well-booted and spicy soundtrack to keep the energy levels high. Also I loved the ironic ending to their dream life. The script might be filled with low-brow lines, but still you got some clever wit and pointless rambles that are engaging enough, if moronic in vibe. It's not terribly perfect as a whole, but there are enough spirited and unpredictable sketches (like the nut-house and acid trip scene and those ones involving the incompetent police) and performances to overlook these failures. From what I hear and read, people usually rate this one as their second best feature and I tend to agree.

Incredibly stupid, but I got a kick out of it nonetheless. It's an enjoyably crazy romp from the beginning to the end. A definite must for the fans.

But if we legalize it, does that nullify years of great stoner humor?

[TOMASBBloodhound · 7/10 · 4 July 2016]

With so many people here in the US hell bent on legalizing recreational marijuana, and some states actually doing so, where does that leave the decades of stoner humor we've had in so many films? This is a question we will ponder later in this review. But first, I implore you to sit back and watch this fitfully funny Cheech and Chong effort in which the duo sell their high-quality weed from an ice cream truck, evade the cops, chase scantily clad women, make a fortune, get locked in a mental institution, lose the fortune, somehow get it back, and then apparently lose it once again. As far a crisp direction (from Chong), and a tight story line, forget it. This largely improvisational film is a series of oddball vignettes and typical drug humor. With Chong at the helm, instead of Lou Adler from Up In Smoke, this film meanders more than it should, but still contains plenty of laughs. Many of them are supplied once again by Stacey Keach, reprising his Sgt. Stedanko role from Up In Smoke. Apparently he has never recovered from his freak-out in front of the rock club while standing too close to the duo's burning pot van. Now he has gotten a hold of a specialized form of pot the duo have been growing in their laboratory at the bottom of an empty swimming pool. It turns anyone who smokes it into an iguana. Yep, its better if you don't ask any more about this plot.

As I was chuckling through this film, one major question kept gnawing at me.... what would nation-wide legalization do to the concept of stoner humor? Think back to all of the films and characters in movie history that have used marijuana to define themselves as counter-culture. Think back to Easy Rider, and Fonda and Hopper introducing Jack Nicholson to pot while sitting around a campfire. Think of everything Cheech and Chong have done. Think of Jeff Spicoli. Harold and Kumar. The Pineapple Express.... Would legalizing this stuff throw all of that out the window? Or would it grant them their place in American history as some sort of pioneers? As someone who hasn't touched the stuff in over a decade, it's hard for me to say. I do not look down at people (many of whom I know) who still use Marijuana, but I cannot help but think it wouldn't be as fun if it were legal. I think of something I heard from filmmaker John Waters once homosexual marriage was declared legal here in the states. Waters, out decades before it was considered acceptable, was almost lamenting the fact that it wasn't as fun to be gay anymore. It was almost too mainstream for him! Anyway, my instincts tell me that marijuana use may lose its edge if it becomes legal everywhere. Were it legal, would stoner humor even exist anymore? Would a couple of stoned characters be any more humorous that an couple guys drinking a beer? Well, Strange Brew was funny enough, I guess....

7 Of 10 stars.

The Hound.

One To Relax Your Brain

[eric262003 · 7/10 · 4 April 2011]

Strange this was released during the Reagan era (1981-1989). But I digress, "Nice Dreams" explores the fundamentals of counterculture, as it is plotted very tightly as the previous installments "Up In Smoke", but not as continual as "Still Smokin" and "Next Movie". "Nice Dreams" has a familiar story that is like a trend in the Cheech and Chong franchise. The slackers receive a huge fortune selling their dope and with the sudden twist, they eventually lose it all. Along their journey, they confront bizarre situations and people which include a pot-smoking Pee-Wee Herman, Sandra Bernhard and Dr. Timothy Leary.

Not every gag is delivered coherently. But the awkward dope jokes don't come to the point that will make you cringe or purposefully just show up without warning. Sure Tommy Chong is no Martin Scorsese, but he does enlighten us with scenes that are fresh and risk-taking in attempt and effort. Such memorable scenes include a nude Cheech clinging onto an elevator exterior, Cheech swimming in pool of marijuana joints, and Stacey Keach slowly transforming into a lizard was taken to an artistic intention that was impressive.

The plot and the structure were simple in premise, but what carries "Nice Dreams" are the dopeheads meandering casually through a cannabis farm. They chime and chat about random mindless bunk while the wonderful sounds of country-rock is heard in the apropos background. Unlike the other Cheech and Chong movies where drugs and dope are ugly this one marvels at the serenity of marijuana fields, in spite of the clichéd setting of the movie in the rural area of Southern California. Though I was a very young boy in 1981, but there were a lot of growing concerns at the time, here we see a duo of slackers who felt to just live the life, oblivious to what was happening at the time.

Where're their heads at?

[BrandtSponseller · 5/10 · 11 August 2006]

This is the third Cheech and Chong film, coming after Up in Smoke (1978) and Cheech and Chong's Next Movie (1980). The films are a series in the traditional way--characters continue, and there is something of a linear development per the films' chronologies of the characters, but as with the plot of this film in isolation, the threads holding it all together are pretty thin.

In Nice Dreams, Cheech and Chong are selling dope from a barely disguised ice cream truck. They may have struck it rich by this point, or maybe Cheech just doesn't know how to read numbers very well. At any rate, they do not seem to be hurting for money--they have a bag of it, after all, which they have to pursue later in the film--and somehow, they're living in a very expensive, big house on the beach outside of Los Angeles, although it seems that maybe they're just crashing at a friend of a friend's place while he's away (he's a musician on tour).

A lot of it is pretty unclear, because the last thing that Cheech and Chong as writers and director (only Chong in the latter case) are concerned with is telling anything like a traditional story. Instead, it seems like maybe they were high while they wrote and filmed this. That's usually meant as a negative--the idea is to denote how little sense the work makes, or how little coherence it has. I don't mean it that way here. I don't mean it as a knock, necessarily. I mean it literally, and consequently to underscore a kind of stream-of-consciousness, absurdist and surreal flow. Those can all be very positive qualities, as they are occasionally here. But maybe Cheech and Chong were just looking for the easiest way to string together a number of sketch ideas, and not enough sketch ideas, because some of them are drawn out or reprised past their freshness date. And that probably goes for the whole premise of Cheech and the Man (Chong) selling dope and getting into wacky situations while being pursued by Sgt. Stedanko (Stacy Keach). Nice Dreams feels too much like Cheech and Chong are just coasting--vamping while waiting for the next soloist to start. Although I love experimentation as much as anyone else, this is a film that would have benefited from a stronger focus on telling a story in a traditional way. I don't always think that something different is better just because it's different.

So this is definitely a step down from the first two films, although there are more than enough funny moments to keep a fan of the first two films mildly entertained, and most of the supporting actors, including the returning ones, are enjoyable and had even more potential. Some skits (that word fits here better than "scenes"), like the crazy house and the fiasco at Donna's apartment, and even the "Save the Whales" song, are as good as most of the material in the first two films. But overall, it just seems like their hearts, and maybe their heads, weren't as much into making a film this time around.

Hey, man, have some ice creams that give you nice dreams

[johnfos · 9/10 · 25 June 2005]

Cheech and Chong's first movie, Up in Smoke (1978), was the most successful and it set the scene for the five other films which were to follow. Nice Dreams (1981) is movie number three.

Nice Dreams is a very good film for laid-back old hippies like me who enjoy romanticising the 70s. Gone are the flower-power days of the 60s and life seems to have degenerated into sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll, and this movie has its fair share of each.

My favourite scene is at the Chinese restaurant where Chong is mistaken for Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. And then there is a welcome cameo appearance from the enigmatic LSD guru Dr Timothy Leary.

One of my favourite supporting roles is the police sergeant who has the tongue of a lizard and believes "the only way to catch a doper is for you yourself to become a smoker."

The quirky soundtrack and slapstick comedy helps to keep the movie moving along nicely...

Even though Cheech and Chong sold millions of records in the 70s and had a major success with Up in Smoke, I would not call Nice Dreams a mainstream movie. I would suggest it is a movie with a cult following although I've never seen it on any "cult film" lists.

If you like this movie you may also like "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and "Withnail and I".

Nice Place to Visit; Wouldn't Want to Live There

[Abbeyr4 · 7/10 · 7 February 2005]

Well I guess everyone should have at least one "head" movie in their collection. I liked it on VHS, not sure if I would shell out the bucks for a DVD edition, unless it had some deleted scenes or outtakes, which I am not sure are available. Stacy Keach pretty much lowered his standards to appear in this movie and yet he was perfect for the role of the drug unit commander. There were some classic scenes: Cheech lying on a ladder acting like he was swimming; a drug interdiction helicopter hovering a nude beach; a tortilla starting a fire right in front of an unsuspecting blind musician friend. These are all sight gags, but with a "pot" movie, what else do you expect? "Gone With The Wind"? Most of the movie is more stupid than funny, but at the time they were hilarious. The best scenes in the movie involve a restaurant haunted by "night" people. The only part of the movie I didn't care for was the ending, which was rather abrupt. All in all, a good escape to the 60s and 70s.

Some of the old magic is still left

[mentalcritic · 5/10 · 10 July 2005]

Following on from Up In Smoke and Next Movie, Nice Dreams in retrospect sort of represents a crossroads for the stoner duo. During some of the skits that litter the show, they are at the top of their game. It is during others, when they seem to believe that just repeating the kind of material that worked in the previous two films will get laughs, that the opposite happens. Given that the next film to feature the Mexican stoners was Things Are Tough All Over, this can be described as the last genuinely funny Cheech and Chong film. People seem to believe that the duo lost their box office draw as the result of the Just Say No culture, and that might be true in a sort of coincidental manner. But the sad truth is that this comedy based around two hapless, jobless losers getting stoned and having a lot of misadventures got old very quickly. Next Movie and Up In Smoke were also basically a couple of funny skits with a lot of ordinary film linking them together, but Nice Dreams shows these occasional skits getting progressively less amusing.

The conceit of Nice Dreams is simple. Cheech and Chong play a pair of stoners who run a beachside marijuana plantation. An undercover operation to catch them in the act of selling their produce turns up evidence that some of the marijuana they grow is somehow capable of turning the smoker into something reptilian. Unfortunately, this subplot is barely set up, and never exploited to anything resembling its full potential. All we get is a few interesting shots of Stacy Keach turning into a man-sized lizard. If you have seen Up In Smoke, then you have no reason to watch any part of this film that Keach appears in. His character, dialogue, and routines are almost word for word lifted from Up In Smoke. During a large part of the film, he is utterly absent from proceedings as the heroes go off on all sorts of other whacky adventures.

One such detour involves a trip to a mental hospital where the doctor seems whackier than the patients. This gives Paul Reubens a chance to do his thing as the Howie Hamburger Dude, a slightly less orthodox role than as the hotel clerk in Next Movie. It is kind of strange that he appears childlike next to Cheech Marin, who is nearly half a foot shorter than him. Fans of Bad Santa might also recognise Tony Cox, although you would need to be more attentive than your average goof-spotter to notice him at any point. Evelyn Guerrero makes the second of three appearances as Donna, who is at the centre of one rather odd skit involving a naked Cheech riding atop an elevator car. Fans of the stoner duo may in fact see more of Cheech than they had wished during this part of the film. If that is not dedication to their art, then I do not know what is. There is also a mildly amusing Jimi Hendrix skit for those who did not get enough of this schtick in Police Academy 6.

Ultimately, the big problem with this, or any other Cheech and Chong film save Up In Smoke, is a lack of plot cohesion. It is almost as if the writers think to themselves "hey, this tack is no longer working, let's start a whole new film now". What basically saves this film is that when they do switch to a new tack, the one they switch to happens to work, at least for the first ten minutes thereof. This is a complete contrast to Still Smokin', where you have one skit that is good for about four laughs in amongst eighty minutes of complete crap. Perhaps if Cheech and Chong teamed up with some genuinely talented comic writers like Simon Pegg, they could come up with something that involves laughter from beginning to finish. They could even team up with George Romero and produce a stoner zombie film, which is something I would certainly pay to see.

In the end, however, this is little more than the fodder that helped the idea of Hollywood needing less studios take hold. Sure, we have less unfunny comedies these days, but we also have less genuinely funny ones. So I gave Nice Dreams a five out of ten. If you have already seen Up In Smoke and Next Movie, this is a good place to continue testing how long it takes you to get tired of the Cheech and Chong routine. Otherwise, I recommend you look at those two films instead.

C&C's Best (Maybe)

[pmtelefon · 8/10 · 30 September 2014]

This is probably Cheech and Chong's best movie. My daughters often ask me (well maybe not often, but once in a while) which one I think is funnier: Cheech or Chong? My answer is always the same: Chong is funnier, but Cheech is a better actor. This movie is a great example. These guys are very talented and very funny. I talk to people my age (the bottom rung of the Baby Boomer generation) and they still think of C&C as two burn-outs that made some movies. Do people think that Charlie Chaplin walked around with a tiny mustache and a cane? Did Jerry Lewis walk around knocking glasses over? They're actors. Maybe their movies weren't always the best, but C&C are two of the greats. And "Nice Dreams" is one of their best.

Stoner's Paradise

[damianphelps · 7/10 · 13 January 2022]

When I first watched this movie (my first CnC film) I had no idea what most of the jokes were about and I still loved it.

As I got older I understood more and the jokes became funnier.

I had never seen anything like this before and I've loved them ever since.

Fun until the rape punchline

[Zamboni_HeeHaw082 · 3/10 · 7 December 2022]

Nice Dreams was the first C&C movie I had seen. I watched it when I was in college, when I was first getting into grass.

The whole film has a great vibe, and while the jokes don't always land, the movie feels like a time capsule, in a way, which makes it fun to watch in the 2020s.

Unfortunately, the past has a way of being problematic, and the bit where Cheech rapes an unconscious woman, before breaking the fourth-wall to have the audience justify him, is about as tone-deaf as it gets. And it ruins the movie.

The fact that he is a protagonist, and a "beloved character," is as self-destructive as it gets. Not only does he commit the act, but then turns to camera, admits to the audience that what he did was wrong, but then completely exonerates himself by pointing the finger back at the audience, saying, "you would have done it too!"

See? You can't get offended, because you would have raped too.

There's so much to unpack. It's all very problematic; and while the excuse "it was a different time" will always be thrown around to defend works like this, I think history will show that nobody wants this kind of film.

After all the former stoners from the 70s/80s die off, no one will be scrubbing through HBOmax looking for their next Cheech n Chong experience.

They'll probably look for something without horribly dated rape jokes.

Unappreciated Classic

[lazzie1 · 19 February 2002]

These guys are great, from the records to the live shows to their movies. This movie has some great scenes, the scene's with Pee Wee and Timothy Leary. The look of the film dates it perfectly. I've liked this movie since the first time I saw it 10 years ago. Everyone I know loves Cheech and Chong. 2 THUMBS UP ^^

Happy Herb

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 21 March 2020]

Tommy Chong and Cheech Marin are selling happy herbs out of their dumpy ice cream truck pursued by bumbling cops. Sgt. Stedanko (Stacy Keach) has turned into a drug fiend testing out different strains of marijuana which is transforming him into a lizard.

Cheech and Chong do their antics. I love their little bits like Cheech burning falafels. They do some silent era comedy. The story meanders around. The bumbling cops are really stupid without being funny. Stacy Keach gets weird and that's weirdly interesting. It has an Edith Prickley character but doesn't have Andrea Martin to play it. It has Pee-wee Herman before he's Pee-wee Herman. Despite a few funny bits, the movie has no direction or flow. It's weirdly wacky and partaking would definitely help in its enjoyment.

Very funny...

[The_Core · 7/10 · 30 March 2005]

It's not easy to figure out how to rate a movie like this, so I decided to rate it based purely on my opinion of its "laugh factor." I've seen this and "Next Movie," but not "Up in Smoke." In my opinion, this one is the funnier of the two. It is definitely zanier and more over-the-top (not to mention just plain weird), but the jokes are funnier and (unlike "Next Movie") it has something of a plot. Some of the scenes are real classics, like the "chicken guy" in the nuthouse, Cheech's inability to scratch, Jimmy's reaction to the light bulb in the police station, and others.

I enjoyed both this one and "Next Movie" but have to say this is the better of the two in my opinion. One of these days I'll rent "Up in Smoke" as well. These films were made when I was in High School and I've enjoyed the occasional viewing through the years... although I'm not a stoner, it's still easy to enjoy this kind of silly humor.

funny stuff

[DaSilky1 · 7/10 · 7 April 2001]

Rarely does a movie capture a true friendship like that of Cheech and Chong. The two play of each other ingeniously. I can never understand why people cannot appreciate a movie like this, it really does not make any sense to me. Cheech and Chong remind me of my friends and I when I was a kid and the stuff me used to get into. Paul Reubens does a great job as the hamburger dude, and I still have dreams of the bird man in the insane asylum. Honestly, I would have to say that Nice Dreams is a tie with Up in Smoke as the best Cheech and Chong movie.

Who smoked up the script?

[gridoon · 5/10 · 6 June 2005]

This is the only Cheech & Chong comedy I've seen so far, so I can't judge it against their other works, but if you took out the drug references and the brief nudity and replaced them with a few fight scenes, I'd put it on the level of a lesser Bud Spencer & Terence Hill comedy (like for example "All The Way, Boys!"): amiable enough, but one laugh per half an hour is not exactly a good enough average to justify a rental, is it? This movie is too raunchy for kids, too obvious for adults, too scriptless for anyone. There is an interesting surreal, hallucinogenic sequence that is too short, and a role for Pee-Wee Herman that is short but still too long. Cheech himself sums it all up when he says "Ha Ha! That's very funny, man. It's so funny I forgot to laugh". (**)

The only way to make them bleed, is to bust their ass and ....Come on Noodles !!!

[CelluloidRehab · 9/10 · 14 February 2006]

Cheech and Chong return as incognito ice cream men, selling a particularly potent flavor of ice cream (Mary Jane) out of a crazy ice cream truck (with a giant clown head on a spring). While this is going on, the incompetent 5-0 are on their tail in a sting operation (Narcothon). This is all due to their discovery of a new kind of weed that turns the smoker into a lizard. Thats the plot.

The rest consists of the outrageous interactions between Cheech, Chong and everyone else. Imagine an entire evening of constant bar hopping, for reference. The major difference between this movie and the other good C&C movies (Up in Smoke, Next Movie) is that C&C are quite wealthy due to their ice cream sales. Their lavish incomes can afford them luxury dreams such as :

1) sipping pina colonics, on their bought island, where they have topless slaves that worship them and are referred to as the Sun Kings.

2) a theme park called Vatto Land, with Guitar Land in it. (guest gangs, everyone gets to do their own graffiti walls,etc.)

This is by far the craziest set of circumstances out of all the good C&C movies. It is also, I feel, the funniest of all the C&C movies. Paul Reubens (this is Pee Wee's 2nd appearance in a C&C movie) and Timothy "I have the key right here" Leary are amongst the famous cameos. Stacy Keach also reprises his role from Up in Smoke, as Sgt. Stedenko. Even Sandra Bernhard makes a brief cameo as one of the nuts.

There are numerous scenes of hilarity in the movie. The funniest of these has to be the scene at the Honk Kong restaurant where the guys meet Cindy the Agent (Chong is mistaken for Jerry Garcia), followed by Cheech's Quaalude reunion with his high school sweetheart Donna (who was going to be a nun) and her date, the Hamburger Dude (a.k.a, Paul Reubens), bearing Koka-Kola (original version). The other funny scene is Cheech's death-row trip, complete with Michael Winslow (a.k.a Larvell Jones, who also makes his second appearance in a C&C movie). Of course this wouldn't be a C&C movie without a musical number. Nice Dreams gives us "Save the Whales".

This is an absolute can't miss for fans of Cheech and Chong and a perfect remedy for the munchies, blood-shot eyes, cotton-mouth, late night insomnia and cancellation of Dave's show.

-Celluloid Rehab

a great `hit` if you like Cheech & Chong.

[Mp3_Pawn · 4/10 · 3 August 2001]

There really is only one way to best describe this film, UNINTERESTING. The only talented actors in the movie is the Chief of the narcotics (played by the father on the tv series TITUS) and Cheech & Chong.

It really is too bad they used the whole reptile idea in the movie , it sure could have been much more of a movie (and of course, take out theatre tugging Rubens).

If your looking for a rating, I would have to say a 4/10 for this one. I dont know how anyone can say its the best movie they've made... I seriously believe they need to get out more in that case.

I thought this Cheech and Chong vehicle made for a nice movie.

[Aaron1375 · 9/10 · 26 June 2010]

I do not understand why this Cheech and Chong movie has a rather low score here at IMDb. I thought this was by far the funniest movie I have seen the duo in. Granted the only other two movies I have seen them is the mildly funny "Corsican Brothers" and the dreadful "Yellow Beard". Still, they were on fire here, I rather liked the plot that kind of went here and there with no real set destination. They are basically selling weed out of an ice cream truck, and their pot fields are disguised by a tarp that seen from above resembles a swimming pool (until said tarp gets a rip in it). The cops though are hot on their trail, well sort of when the captain is not sampling the pot himself (he has a bit of an adverse reaction to it). So Cheech and Chong get some money from some of their stash and end up having to go to a hotel where a jealous crazed boyfriend is headed their way and then they somehow manage getting locked up in a mental asylum. Well Cheech does, somehow Chong gets mistaken for a doctor. Then it wraps up rather nicely as things work out right indirectly for our heroes. Okay, hero is a stretch. The comedy here is top notch in my book, I love Paul Reuben's scenes as the guy who is so sorry he took the money. I also liked how this movie went by fast with a good assortment of crazy locales for Cheech and Chong to have their adventures. Like I said I thought this movie was hilarious, however my opinion does not seem to be held by most.

Lesson #1 - Stream of Consciousness Only Works for Kafka

[TBoldOne · 2/10 · 20 August 2010]

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.

Leary Dies

[tedg · 24 February 2006]

These guys made a terrific movie in their first try. It was an accident, but what happened was a combination of things. There was cool self-reference and the perversion of the buddy road movie. It has a looseness to it that was new to "mainstream" movies in those days. Yes, part of the charm was that this was a mainstream movie and it treated dope smoking as a trivial amusement. It was in a way, the "Thin Man" of dope.

Afterwards, these guys made nothing but drek, sort of a demonstration of the dullness that dope brings. These things aren't even watched any more by the doper crowd because market forces have moved to supply them with hipper, more supportive fare. So if you are considering watching this for almost any reason, you'll find better elsewhere.

That is, except for the appearance of Timothy Leary. In those days, there really were distinct drug cultures. Pot was originally a Black Jazz thing, appropriated by kids. LSD was for the spiritually ambitious. Coke for bored celebrities, Heroin for the ghetto. Speed for the fringe biker crowd. Sects formed around these in the 70s and they became icons for different "life style" choices, though that silly term would be invented later.

This movie was the first C&C that threw all drugs in the same barrel. Pot, coke and acid, all the same.

That last makes its appearance here, ushered in by Leary. I'm convinced that the world would be a radically different place today if he weren't so inadequately suited for the role he adopted: prophet of synthesized enlightenment. By 1980, he was a joke and already exploiting his celebrity status to earn a living.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

A nightmare

[Tito-8 · 2/10 · 12 November 1998]

This is a typically weak C&C vehicle, with the expected doses of idiotic humour and drug use. However, this film really hits rock bottom thanks to the scenes involving Stacy Keach and Paul Reubens...they drag it down to a pathetic level that is not often seen in the movies. Unfortunately, the blame for this should go right back to Cheech and Chong, for even though their characters aren't quite as annoying as Keach or Reubens, they were the ones who wrote this mess.