Half Baked

I had never heard of this movie 'Half Baked' until I was channel surfing cable this afternoon and came across it. While I had heard the name Dave Chapelle because of the television show recently airing, I was not familiar with two of the other three main characters. The guy playing the character in jail I have seen before. In other words, I am not up on who these people are/were. I am of the Chech and Chong 'Up in Smoke' generation of drug themed flicks. Saw them all back in the day. However, I found this movie much funnier than those ever were. Much funnier. The Scarface character was hilarious, but I found the Brian and Thurgood parts funnier and quite believable in an over-abundant way. I have read here many stating the cameo parts were the film's highlight. Not in my opinion. The main characters owned this one. As an aside from a 40 something, it is nice to see that this country(USA)has come along the road far enough whereby having a couple white guys, a black dude and a Cuban sharing a habitat together doesn't come across as contrived. The stoner parts all looked familiar to me. Funny movie.

The trailer for this movie looked really dumb, so I didn't see it in theaters. Then I heard about Bob Saget's cameo (and what he says), and just wanting to hear Saget say that made me rent the movie. Surprisingly, it's not a bad movie. Oh, it's dumb. It's sloppy. It's *obsessed* with marijuana. But I laughed several times in the movie, and the characters are very likable. Best watched with a group of friends who don't mind drug humor.

Only a true pothead could have thought up the script for HALF BAKED. Tamra Davis is an underrated director, with other cool movies like BEST MEN and his other retarded comedy masterpiece, BILLY MADISON. Dave Chapelle, Jim Breuer, Guillermo Diaz, and Harland Williams all give incredible, insane performances. The spoofs on other films like JERRY MCGUIRE, DEAD PRESIDENTS, SUPERMAN, as well as the old "Batman" show, are perfectly weaved in. There are numerous cameos by tons of varied people: Snoop Dogg, Jon Stewart, Janeane Garafalo, Willie Nelson, Stephen Baldwin, Clarence Williams 3, Tommy Chong, Bob Saget, and others, they're all funny in their own ways. The Guy on the Couch was the most interesting character, for mysterious reasons.

This movie is hilarious. Extremely stupid, but still hilarious. And even as unbelievable as it is, there are people actually like this, heck I know several of them. The thing that makes it so funny is the fact that a bunch of funny parts in the film actually happen. So if you want to see funny realism mixed with over the top fantasy, this is your film.

After reading several negative reviews analyzing this and other stoner movies as being stupid, mindless and lacking in plot. HELLO!!! This is a stoner movie about stoners getting stoned. Who cares about plot or social messages or that other deep crap. You want depth go see a Bergman or a Fellini film, lighten up and smoke a joint. I'm glad to see stoner comedies back in fashion after suffering through pretentious, preachy, boring 80s anti-drug dramas that are never truly grounded in reality and where the characters always either predictably OD or just simplistically kick their addiction. So rent this movie (or watch it currently on cable), fire up one and enjoy