Born In East LA
This 80s comedy, which marked Cheech Marin’s first cinematic effort after splitting up with Tommy Chong, is based on their rousing and entertaining spoof song about a Mexican-American accidentally deported and desperate to get back home. The film starts with promise as Cheech pursues a hot redhead in a green dress around the city, but once the actual story kicks in, the humor turns out to be hit or miss, and the plausibility of the story is also questionable when Cheech heatedly tries to convince the authorities that he is an actual citizen (one would think a quick call to his place of employment where he works as a mechanic to verify his status would have him home in no time). But no, he finds himself stuck in Tijuana for an extended length of time, doing various odd jobs for a likable American scumbag (Daniel Stern) in order to “earn” his way back. As stated, the humor level varies at this point, with some bits (the gay guys trying to rape Cheech who are scared off by bible verse, the tattoo parlor scene, Cheech trying to sneak back disguised as a bush, him and a Mexican street band performing Purple Haze) working while others (virtually everything else) falling flat. One of the biggest errors Cheech makes as writer and director is trying to force some drama and pathos into the story, little of which makes an impression (and which Chong smartly avoided in his solo effort at the time, Far Out Man). Stern tries his best to make his sleazebag a memorable character, but as he huffs and puffs, the script lets him down. We also see the usual cliché in these comedies of the “forced romantic lead”. In filling that role, Kamala Lopez is pretty and charming, despite her lack of chemistry with her leading man (and having Cheech always giving her leering salacious looks doesn’t help any). Jan-Michael Vincent gets a fun cameo as the INS agent who deports Cheech, and the whole affair is pretty much stolen outright by Paul Rodriguez as Cheech’s clueless cousin, new to America, who spends the movie wandering around his house, thinking that a picture of Jesus is talking to him with hysterical results. If only Rodriguez’s character had been given more screen time, and tied into the main story, the film could have been elevated. The finale, with a “border rush” done to Neil Diamond’s “Coming To America”, is fun and cool, though a bit dated in the post 9/11 era, and the pro-immigration message pushed thru most of the film can only be appreciated by a certain segment of viewers. In the end, a noble but failed effort by one half of the greatest comedy team of all time…
5/10