Growing Op

I have a weakness for comedies that involve marijuana. Woody Allen's Sleeper is my favourite comedy of all time. JPod made me hoot. Stacey Keach slowly turning into a lizard in Nice Dreams is one of the funniest comedic ideas ever. Peter Sellers and Herbert Lomb, with wax face melting while high on laughing gas is the scene in movies most likely to make me get the uncontrollable giggles (I know it was not marijuana, but its the same sort of idea).

Growing Op is about a left wing authoritarian father somewhat like Ward Clever who grows marijuana for a living in his kitchen in the middle of an upper class neighbourhood with a rather stodgy teenage son. The premise is ripe with comic potential. Unfortunately, the movie hardly exploits any of it.

It a formulaic story about a dorky guy, Quinn, who lusts after the girl, puts up with hazing, then gets her. The marijuana growing is really just a backdrop.

There are two mildly villainous characters, his rival, Philip, a conceited, dazzlingly handsome blond boy (still photos don't do him justice), played by Jon Cor and Quinn's younger sister, played by Katie Boland, who wears garish clothes and makeup, who bullies him.

Philip has the best line in the movie when he explains he will not use violence against Quinn in his rivalry because otherwise has father would not send him to law school.

These villains are fun, but barely on screen enough to let you relish them. As in any teen movie, there are a number of preposterously shallow, air head girls.

Father is not funny, just annoying. Rosanna Arquette, as Mom, gets a few good scenes, but she is basically wasted. In a comedy, unexpected things should happen. This move is far too realistic and boring.

There is a fair bit of obligatory soft porn between the two leads. Neither of them was particularly sexy, so for me it just felt embarrassing. Even the actors gave out the vibe they could hardly wait to get it over with. Rachael has a strange way of smiling sometimes that reminds me of Mr. Burns in The Simpsons. It is quite off-putting, as if she were an imbecile. I am not sure if it was intentional.

Quinn (Steven Yaffee) is an awkward teen with no friends. It doesn't help that his parents (Wallace Langham, Rosanna Arquette) are hippies secretly growing illegal weed at home and they don't allow him to attend school. Hope (Katie Boland) is his punk drug-selling little sister. He's taken with beautiful new girl Crystal Connor (Rachel Blanchard) moving in across the street. Suddenly, he has a real need to go to class. His love for Crystal makes him the prime bullying target for class president hunk Philip and his popular group.

That was some twist. I am not a fan. It turns a fun little teen comedy into a heavy drama. I do like most of the movie. The sharp turn totally threw me. It's definitely a surprise although I assumed the ending to be her accidentally letting out the secret and the family has to go on the run. The point is to keep it light and prison time is not light. I still like the movie and the characters.

Just saw it. An excellent movie. Original idea, good play, good scenes. I don't smoke weed , but here they made us to see how is not only people's life, but and life of the grass. They show how stupid are those who just smoke it, without any idea about. And the end of the movie - brilliant! I didn't wait it'g gonna over like this, not only happy end, or tragic. I had no idea what to think. I't beautiful, happy, sad. I loved this. My mark - 10+... P.S. I enjoyed more that there was no stupid thing of making film, where producers make movie worst. Like all team was one man, was thinking about one thing only, doing it how they can, but trying to do it well...

I am shocked to read so many positive reviews on here for this absolutely terribly written film, I can only surmise that some of the cast and crew felt the need to try to bolster what is a very poor piece of Canadian cinema.

The problem lies solely in the script which feels like a first draft. A decent premise that very quickly goes nowhere. Around the one hour mark I was left wondering what possible events could sustain the film for another 40 minutes. As it turns out, the answer lies in a complete plot twist that actually may have worked had the movie been about something to begin with.

The relationship between the two leads would make a nice subplot, but it's not enough to carry a film that has little else going for it.

Decent performances and a competent level of production value are the only things saving this film by being terrible overall, but that only further serves to showcase the problem with a film being based on such terrible source material. All the ingredients were there to make a good film, but it just never even scratches the surface of it's potential for comedy or story.

My wife and tenant love to torture me with main stream movies...this was such a refreshing break!

You could really care for the characters and the plot flowed along really well.

I think I only realized it was Canadian made when the court scene happened...why can't Canadian productions make better court rooms? lol

I would recommend this to anyone, especially stoners.

A great film you can really get in to.

I am going to look for more films by the same people, I thought it was really well written.

If anyone knows more films by the same people, please post!