1980 Week: Cheech and Chong's Next Movie

Whereas their first picture, Up in Smoke (1978), had a silly but serviceable plot predicated on themes from their popular comedy albums, comedy duo Cheech and Chong opted for a more sketch-based approach while making their second picture. Another change was Tommy Chong taking over the directing chores from the duo’s manager, Lou Adler, who helmed Up in Smoke. In nearly every regard, Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie is a weirder and wilder ride than its predecessor, but the lack of recognizable narrative structure makes the picture a slog to watch. It doesn’t help that the movie is devoid of big comedic ideas. Up in Smoke featured such absurd highlights as a pot-powered battle of the bands and a vehicle made of marijuana. Cheech and Chong’x Next Movie features endless scenes of Cheech Marin playing a secondary character named Dwayne “Red” Mendoza, who repeatedly exclaims “Holy sheep shit!” Marin’s main role is that of a character named Cheech, and Chong’s main role is that of a character named Chong. The cheerful stoners are passively anarchistic, and while devotees of pothead humor may feel otherwise, nothing the characters do is interesting. They accidentally drink urine, coax nubile ladies into bed, make loud noises in inappropriate circumstances, piss off their neighbors, shock uptight white people, and smoke copious amounts of grass. Furthermore, the movie is so aimless that during one long scene, supporting player Michael Winslow (later to appear in the Police Academy series) makes silly sound effects while a crazed old man laughs at nothing. Still, the picture provides a few small footnotes to comedy history: Character actress Edie McClurg makes her feature debut with a sizable role, while Paul Reubens plays two parts, including his famous Pee-Wee Herman character. Yet by the time the picture hits its “peak” with a barbarian-themed sex hallucination and an alien-abduction scene, Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie has lost all potency. Nonetheless, four more Cheech and Chong movies followed before the duo’s big-screen run sputtered out in 1984.

Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie: LAME

Up in Smoke (1978)

          Since blazing doobies has never been one of my pastimes, it’s no surprise that most of the jokes in Cheech and Chong’s first movie, Up in Smoke, leave me cold—there’s a fine line between buzzed silliness and infantile stupidity, and I’m not hip enough to live on the plugged-in side of that line. So when I say that Up in Smoke is a brisk but forgettable compendium of lame gags, I acknowledge that the movie’s probably a different experience when consumed by folks who groove on the ganja. For instance, I’m sure some people find the movie’s ridiculous climax to be high-larious (emphasis on the high), because Cheech Marin dresses in a tutu and shreds an acid-rock guitar solo in front of a nightclub audience that’s wasted on pot fumes while, outside the club, narcs dressed as Hari Krishnas wrestle with epic munchies because they’re inhaling the same wafts of wacky tobacky. To each their own, man.

          Extrapolated from Cheech and Chong’s popular stand-up act about two laid-back stoners who get hassled by The Man, the movie’s plot has a certain amiable rebelliousness. Marin plays Pedro De Pacas, a wisecracking horndog who’s always looking for a good time. Tommy Chong plays Anthony “Man” Stoner, a rich kid-turned-wastoid who occasionally works as a rock drummer. The characters meet on a highway one afternoon, then get wasted and embark on a quest to score fresh weed. A mix-up gets the duo deported to Tijuana, where they find work driving a car back to the U.S. Unbeknownst to them, however, the car is built entirely of pot, so they’re muling for dealers. This puts our heroes in the crosshairs of Sgt. Stedenko (Stacy Keach), an absurdly uptight L.A. cop who’s jonesing to make a big drug bust. The main joke of the movie is that Pedro and Man are so loaded they never realize they’re in danger, and the whole goofy storyline climaxes with a battle of the bands at the Roxy on the Sunset Strip. Producer-director Lou Adler, Cheech and Chong’s longtime manager, owns the Roxy, and his music-biz background lends enjoyable authenticity to the picture’s concert scenes.

          As actors, neither Chong nor Marin is remarkable, though Marin has a likeable vibe and terrific timing, and the duo’s dynamic was quite smooth by the time they made Up in Smoke. Keach kicks the film up a notch by channeling his signature intensity into a cartoonish role, so it’s fun to see him playing juvenile scenes like reacting to someone pissing on his leg in a men’s room. (This actually happens twice, which gives a sense of how tired the jokes get.) Tom Skerritt plays a loopy cameo as a whacked-out Vietnam vet, and the film’s various supporting players lend exuberance if not necessarily great skill. The script, predictably, is an episodic collage of comedy bits, and Adler’s direction is competent, with blandly shot scenes juiced by a bouncy score built around the classic War jam “Low Rider.”

Up in Smoke: FUNKY