Up In Smoke
The one thing that all the great movie comedy teams always shared was having seamless, flawless onscreen chemistry. Whether it was Abbott and Costello (who were not friends offscreen and barely spoke off camera) or The Three Stooges (in essence two brothers and their best friend since childhood), when it came to the business of playing off of each other and making people laugh, that one attribute was far more important than any discernible acting talent or even good writing (especially when razor sharp improv or ablibbing was in play). As great as the âGolden Eraâ of movie comedy teams was (1930s to 1950s), it wasnât until the late 1970s that arguably the most brilliant team of them all would finally hit the screen, that being none other than Cheech and Chong. The duo had been together for 10 years already prior to their 1978 film debut releasing a slew of highly popular comedy albums with Chongâs background as a professional musician leading the two of them to also do a series of novelty (comedy) songs as well. What really made them bold and daring though, was their decision to base much of their brand of comedy on what was mostly politically incorrect humor which centered around antiauthority stances and counterculture attitudes in general and around the usage of drugs and narcotics in particular. While many in the reactionary crowds railed against their alleged promoting of drug use, they mostly failed to grasp that while in real life Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong were indeed heavy users and advocates of marijuana (and still are to this day), they were known to rarely if ever use weed as a âgateway drugâ and engage in anything harder and more dangerous. If anything, whenever they did something beyond weed in either a sketch or a movie, it was usually with hilarious unintended consequences that would show just how stupid they were for straying off the beaten path. When Hollywood offered them a movie deal, they saw the opportunity to forge their names into new territory and horizons besides being just a novelty act and succeeded wonderfully. Record producer Lou Adler was credited as the director, a claim disputed by Chong who is acknowledged to have really directed the film (as he did with the later films where he WAS credited). Chongâs style as a director was notable to say the least, obviously borrowing from Robert Altman to set up multiple events or conversations within one shot and then having the actors mostly adlib while working off of a very basic script and / or summary of the scene. The film is uneven for all of the right reasons as some big name actors in supporting roles come and go from the film sometimes in the blink of an eye before we even have a chance to register their presence while only one of the other players emerges as an incredibly strong third major character besides Cheech and Chong themselves: Stacy Keach as Sgt. Stedanko, a character who was portrayed by the voice of Chong on their albums as being a relatively clueless narcotics task force leader and is here played to the hilt by Keach as a relentless prick and self righteous asshole (whom even his own men under his command laugh at) who ultimately winds up giving an hilarious comic villain performance for the ages, so much so that Cheech and Chong would wind up bringing Keach back as the same character in one of the sequels as well. The movie starts off by casually introducing us to the two stars before they meet, as Cheech is a Mexican American living in a house with an untold amount of other family members present, obviously not wealthy but certainly with more on the ball than his fellow brethren (including having a car). Chong, on the other hand (when we first meet him), is what is commonly called a Silver Spoon, born into a rich family and a life of wealth and privilege which he has used as an excuse to absolve himself of any and all responsibility until his parents (Strother Martin and Edie Adams) attempt to talk him into getting some kind of a job, any job, speaking to Chong as if he were their wayward teenage son (when really Chong was well over 40 at the time of filming) which Chong finally decides to walk away from and take off in his car (with surely the option of returning if things donât work out still open) only to have his vehicle break down and for Cheech to happen upon him to offer a ride, leading to possibly the funniest extended scene in the history of comedy with the two of them riding along and sampling some of each otherâs drugs before having a run in with the police. Itâs amazing how these two can carry a scene together for nearly 15 minutes straight and still keep it fresh and funny with their improv skills while also adapting one of the more famous bits from their albums to the big screen for near perfect visual reinterpretation. Eventually Chong (whoâs a drummer) is invited to join Cheechâs band which also includes bassist James (Ray Vitte, who suffered a rather mysterious death while in the custody of The LAPD five years later) and a super sleazy manager / pimp type who also sells low grade weed to the crew. And thatâs really where the story goes as well as Cheech and Chong go out searching for weed anywhere that they can find it, stopping at the house of a flipped out Vietnam vet (Tom Skerritt giving one of the great donât give a shit performances in movie history), finding themselves deported to Mexico by accident where they find themselves in possession of (unknowingly) a big green van that is somehow made entirely out of weed and then heading back across the border in that van on their way to competing in a Battle Of The Bands at the landmark Roxy Theater (the main reason for Lou Adlerâs involvement and credit as director) while (again, unknowingly) always finding a way to evade Keach and his squad of bumbling idiot cops (whom with the exception of Keach, come across as all being potheads in their own right) even when they stop at the police station to buy some shit from a buxom female cop (Louisa Moritz, a popular b movie actress forever known as being one of Bill Cosbyâs chief accusers) and use the intercom system to mercilessly taunt Keach in hilarious fashion. As uneven as much of this is, the glue that keeps it all together in consistent fashion is Cheech and Chong themselves (and Keach when he enters the story), real life best friends who completely and obviously just knew instinctively how the other one thinks. But what makes it all work (and keeps it relevant to this day) is the general carefree spirit of the overall piece in portraying a world where the main characters happily go through life without displaying even so much as an ounce of motivation when it comes to getting a job, having responsibility or even a desire to make money all while still being realistic enough to acknowledge that these same characters are also fuckups in their own right who suffer through numerous mishaps that are created in many ways by their own stupidity (and thus the source for many of the filmâs biggest and best laughs). The dialogue at times is almost free flowing with many of the best punchlines coming almost as being random throwaways that one might miss if not paying full attention. Cheech and Chong certainly struck a nerve here in American culture that would prove to be volcanic and in doing so probably inspired younger generations to take up the reins of antiestablishment rebellion more than anyone else other than maybe Dennis Hopper as the very major revival of popularity and interest in their work in the late 1990s was most definitely not an accident, a revival that the government must have noticed when they imprisoned Chong in a federal penitentiary for selling bongs over the internet (something which he had been doing for 10 years at that point before The Feds actually decided to care) just as it had been announced that he and Cheech were getting back together for a comeback film (which sadly would never happen), forcing them to settle for a comedy club road tour instead. But the direct sequels that followed this film remain strong efforts in their own right, albeit somewhat lacking the charm that this film had and continues to have to this day, a stoner style of stupid comedy that was invented here but never successfully replicated by various other performers from Harold and Kumar to Beavis and Butthead, thus proving that only Mr. Marin and Mr. Chong can make the usage of illegal narcotics into the stuff of riotous comedy legendâŚ
10/10