Rolling Kansas

Everything in this weed-coated Thomas Haden Church adventure reminds me of almost any of the Beastie Boys music videos I've seen. Everything from the faded, washed-out, sepia-toned coloring to the fake mustaches worn by THC to conceal his identity as the agent and the state trooper.

It really makes me wonder why the Beasties haven't gotten THC to direct one of their newer videos. That would be cool :)

Anyway, the movie is one of the more original films I've seen lately. It isn't too deep, as popularized in newer films because of Lord of the Rings, Spiderman, etc. and it doesn't rely on expensive computer animation to keep people entertained a la The Specials, a movie featuring the almighty Church. Too bad that comedy is beginning to fail in the box office (and on network TV) or we'd start seeing more movies like this. Everybody already knows my favorite character is Dinkadoo... just look at my "net name". If I had to make a recommendation to anyone in order to see this film, I'd tell them that the film's humor is similar to Office Space (which I enjoy a lot).

The movie itself is fairly uneventful, not much happens, but it's funny as hell. Great performances by the cast of actors who all played tiny parts, but very funny parts in other films. It is in a sense a stoner movie, but for most of the film the characters aren't smoking and most of the jokes don't stem from stoner jokes. The humor comes from the fact that these characters have nothing in common and most of them are ridiculously over the top. However, this film entertains from start to finish with off beat humor and solid directing from Thomas Hayden Church. Figuring the power DVD has this film could definitely develop a cult following. ***1/2 out of ****

I almost gave up on this movie after 15 or 20 minutes. The characters are weird, the plot is weak, and the production value isn't all that impressive. However, the movie does start to pick up, and there are some genuinely funny parts. They kept the length reasonable, making this movie worth watching once.

I will say that I was expecting some more stoner comedy. For some reason -- maybe because they didn't want to be labeled a "stoner comedy" -- they shy away from any actual on-screen smoking (even though they already had an R rating). The plot revolves around trying to find a crop of weed, but most of the humor has nothing to do with the sweet herb. It's mostly just a bunch of weird dudes who are down on their luck looking to get paid.

All in all, I would call it decent. Not hilarious, but not unwatchable either.

Stoner comedies seem like the easiest type of movies to make. All it takes is a decent cast, a bunch of drug jokes, a good soundtrack, and a smattering of crude humor to make at least a somewhat enjoyable stoner comedy. However, as HOW HIGH proved, not all stoner comedies are funny. Some just downright suck. Luckily, ROLLING KANSAS isn't one of them. That's not to say that ROLLING KANSAS is going to be on my list of best stoner comedies any time soon, but it provided enough laughs to keep me entertained throughout its running time. It wasn't hilarious yet it was funnier than I expected it to be since I was expecting it to be really awful. Recommended to fans of the genre.

Rolling Kansas has the unique opportunity of actually being a good character driven film hidden beneath the paper mache surface of a stoner movie. A gaggle of young men, a car, a cooler of beer on a search of mythical medical marijuana oasis in Kansas. Need I say more, Yes! These guys are interesting, and they are funny dare I say that they have depth, but not in the traditional sense, more like we don't dumb ourselves down to be funny, depth. Yes, it is a silly movie with a silly premise, three brothers attempt to make a financial killing from harvesting pot that their parents found in Kansas when the boys were wee lads. They find a map and get the wheels, hyjinx ensu. Nothing new there, it's just that the pace and the dialog are actually engaging. Roll on kansas, roll on!