Sonhos Alucinantes de Cheech e Chong

After seeing Cheech and Chong's Up In Smoke, I thought that Still Smokin' would be just as hilarious. It turns out I was way wrong and I was very disappointed at the quality of this film. Among the awful cast, the transitions to and from dream sequences were so confusing that I wasn't sure which part was the actual film and which part was the dream sequence. Occasionally the film would make me start to laugh, but then Cheech would become some annoying character that I just wanted to slap. Cheech and Chong really let me down with this one- but I'm not too upset because there will always be Up In Smoke.

Being a fan of That 70's Show and liking it's Leo character who is played by Tommy Chong, I thought I should check out the movies I had heard about that he made with Cheech Martin. After viewing my first Cheech & Chong movie I am left with mixed thoughts.

Before I watched it, I looked at it's page on IMDb. Seeing it was full of low star ratings and negative reviews, I knew I had picked the wrong Cheech & Chong film. Still, I went into it optimistically but it turned out so-so.

I don't think there were any jokes that made me laugh out loud, but there were some that made me smile or very lightly laugh. Even though all the gags weren't good, the way they did it is still an original approach to comedy. If there were better jokes it could of been really good.

Tommy Chong is a very good actor in this movie. Even when it's not funny, Chong still does well acting wise. Plus sometimes he has this innocent look on his face which makes you feel sorry for him if you don't laugh. Cheech does OK. He's not as good at acting as Chong is, but still OK.

Overall this is an OK movie. You'll probably get a few laughs out of it, but you're not missing anything if you don't watch it.

Cheech and Chong are invited to an international film festival in Amsterdam. When they arrive, Cheech is momentarily mistaken for Burt Reynolds. In true Cheech and Chong fashion, this guy they met at a party in LA (Patrick) got them tickets to this festival. This Patrick guy took the event promoters money and car, as well. The promoter is having trouble funding the event and is expecting Burt and Dolly to show up. Cheech and Chong inevitable fill Mr. Burt and Mr. Dolly's roles in the event. While staying in Amsterdam, all their needs are met for (inadvertantly and with comic consequences by the promoter) by just signing for it. When our heroes get bored of living the good life at the hotel (a debauchery combination of ganja, room service and "room service"), they hit the town. At the Bvlgar Café, they stop to eat the entire menu (consisting of multiple types of sensi and schrooms).

The movie is pretty straight forward. It is a basic fish out of water story. Cheech and Chong are dropped in a nonsensical situation in a foreign country. The rest of the movie is a collage of day dreams and ideas (series of sketches or vignettes) for the show they want to put on for the promoter in Amsterdam. These include the following :

Cheech and Chong are super famous celebrities.

The last part is Cheech and Chong doing a live or live-like stand up performance at the "festival".

Red Neck stand up and the world's oldest blue singer, Blind Melon Chitlin.

Queer Wars.

Con Talk.

Dope-A-Thon.

The Harder They Don't Come movie.

Wrestling with Italian champion Bruno Hakoluki and his partner Ichi Scratchi.

This movie is probably the most straight forward of all the Cheech and Chong movies. I get the impression that the team wanted to see if they could go back to their stand up/live audience roots. I still think it is a step up from Things are Tough all Over and even the Corsican Brothers. I did wish that C&C did spend more time in Amsterdam than the virtual sketch comedy. For the most part the movie is amusing and a nice distraction. I find it hard to recommend this movie for non-fans of Cheech and Chong. Based on this fact alone, I would probably rate this movie as their least successful. I would only recommend this movie for the die-hard C&C fans.

"Still Smokin" isn't as good as Cheech and Chong's earlier movies due to the over-emphasis on vignettes, but it still elicits some laughs. This one has the pot-loving twosome going to Amsterdam for a film festival, where the audience is expecting Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton! From there, the buddies have a series of absurd adventures. The lengthy skits that they imagine drag on a little too long, but the actual shots of the sauna (plus Cheech's own "ET") make up for that.

I've heard that Amsterdam, and probably the entire Netherlands, is a really fine place. This movie really makes it look that way. It's not their best movie, but easily better than their follow-up "Corsican Brothers".

Let's be honest, Cheech & Chong weren't exactly artists, but some of their earlier movies were a lot of fun. This was their 4th or 5th movie, and it's basically a tired rehash of the same stoner jokes they were knocking out in Up In Smoke. Having said that, it is still fun to a certain audience; the same audience who like Beavis & Butthead or Jay & Silent Bob really.

It's not just the infantile humour, it's that age old story of 'loser makes good' that we all find so satisfying over and over again. While C&C don't really achieve anything in any of their movies, they do have fun not achieving it.

In this movie they end up in Amsterdam, where they are mistaken for Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton (obviously). You can pretty much imagine the rest of the movie as is. It's stupid, it's childish, it's juvenile - and that's exactly the point.