Mac & Devin Go to High School

I am a fan of both Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa. So when I heard that they were collaborating to make a stoner comedy I was excited. But unfortunately (in my opinion) this is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Here's some reasons why I think this.

The first problem is at the beginning of the movie, when we're introduced to "Slow Burn". A poorly animated cartoon joint that, really, looks like a white banana. Slow Burn delivers some of the dumbest and unfunny dialogue I've ever heard. Slow Burn then proceeds to tell us that we have to get high to enjoy this movie. Now, it's no lie that weed makes some terrible movies more enjoyable. But relying on the intoxication of your audience for a films enjoyment is pathetic.

The next issue came when I began to uncover what the overall plot was. A cool kid helps a nerdy kid become cool. This story has been reused 1000 times over. When put into the right hands, this plot could possibly become effective, but usually this is not the case.

Now I could be wrong about this, but, while watching, it seemed that the overall point of the movie was to sell music. When you make a movie specifically to sell something or some things ("Jack and Jill") it will usually not turn out well. Especially when it's obvious.

I could go in depth about how bad the acting was or how flat the jokes fell, but I'm not trying to write a book. Which is sad because this is a movie that I've been anticipating as a fan of Wiz and Snoop, and a fan of stoner comedies. But good stoner comedies have good characters that you like and care for. I could care less if Mac & Devin don't graduate (or for that matter DIE).

This movie is just a lot of fun

It literally starts off with a talking joint giving you the instructions of how to watch the movie. It makes the comparison of watching this movie sober to watching a 3D movie without the glasses; you need to be high. And in a way it does make sense that reviewing this movie after a sober watch wouldn't be doing it justice, since that wasn't what it's intended for either.

So right off the bat you know the movie isn't taking itself too seriously, and so shouldn't you. The mere concept of two of the world's most (in)famous stoners as protagonists in a high school-movie is already entertaining, and on top of that the performances weren't too bad either! In a fun way you can see the difference between your average actor, whose acting-classes for "realistic acting" can almost be seen leaking out of their nose, to the point that it's not realistic anymore, with Wiz and Snoop, who are so much the polar opposite to that mentality, thus making them more realistic as characters. I'm making it sound worse than it is actually, as this difference is one of the movies' charms aswell, painting Mac and Devin as the good guys they intend to be.

On top of that, this movie is quite hilarious in its meta humour, of the joint coming in once in a while (and actually even giving useful information). It's got the right amount of laughs, right amount of music (kind of making it feel like a parody of both high-school movies and musicals), and it's self-aware enough to not feel awkward, but also not too self-aware, to the point that it'd become irritating.

All in all this movie is a great time, made by people who know really well what they wanted to make and definitely succeeded. Just don't watch it sober ;)

Cheech & Chong for the 2012 generation, tries to capture the Kid'N Play feeling from the 80's but fails, just a film to advertise the use of "smoke" as a way of life. Snoop has no acting abilities and it shows, the whole cast seems to be a sycophantic group hell bent on pleasing their leader. Film clearly a platform to "sell" the soundtrack, which like the film has predictable lyrics and strives to be "contraversal" in it's message, but is about 50 years to late (Hendrix, Joplin, Jim Morrison etc etc etc) told us to tune in and drop out far more eloquently.Sadly this is purely a commercial venture, those that will watch it and will promote It, will do so just because they think that they are "stickin it to DA man"

I think a lot of the other reviewers missed the point of this movie... the mediocrity is what makes this movie good. The jokes are dumb and the movie plays bad stereotypes and that's why it's funny! This movie isn't about character development or conflict... its ridiculous and just for fun. The fact that we have "slow burnin" the animated joint chiming in at random points in the movie just adds to the ridiculousness. Honestly if you look at the cover and saw that you were going to watch a movie where 40 year old snoop dogg is playing a high schooler of the same age who just hasn't graduated yet, you should expect what you're about to watch.

This is the kind of movie you watch when you want to just relax and watch some low class comedy. Invite some people over, talk through the movie, drink or whatever, and just enjoy something stupid for a while.

Well, here is the one guy that actually liked watching "Soul Plane", so I also was quite into the humor of this movie at first. However about halfway through this movie started to go downhill very fast.

As the start of the movie literally tells you; in order to enjoy and appreciate this movie you really first need to smoke some weed. Now I am not saying you should take drugs before watching this movie but it should tell you something about the movie its style and type of humor. If this doesn't sound fun or appealing at all to you, then simply stay away from this movie and never even come close to it.

The comedy of the movie is quite random at times and very often has nothing to do with the movie and its main story at all. I seriously don't mind this, since most of it really cracked me up. It however starts to become tiresome after a while, especially when it becomes apparent that the movie isn't going anywhere anymore with its story and is completely starting to loose focus after some time.

There comes a point, about halfway through the movie, that it becomes too much of a drugs movie. Seriously, every characters starts doing drugs (well, only marijuana) and only good things come from it, all the time. Not that this movie is necessarily a pro-drugs movie though, it's just far too silly for that of course but in parts it's actually still advocating for legalizing and using marijuana but this movie is of course not the best way to do so and isn't exactly setting the right example for any youngsters out there, though Snoop himself will probably disagree with me on this.

The way I see it; every now and then Snoop Dogg decides to have some fun and call a couple of friends to make a movie with. Nothing too fancy or expensive, just a simple movie to make, to pass some time with and to have a great and fun time while shooting. This for most part can be seen back on the screen, which is a positive thing to say, since it makes the movie a really fun one to watch at parts but the quality and money put into is all far too little to truly consider this a good enough movie, or even to take it serious enough as one.

Snoop Dogg is actually also the reason why I sometimes watch these kind of movies. I really like him as a person and actor and his personality and comedic style always makes me laugh and smile. He also definitely is being the highlight of this movie. Without him I would had most likely absolutely hated watching it.

Not a good movie by any means but I at least still got some laughs out of it. Thanks Snoop!

4/10

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