Half Baked

Decades ago, Cheech and Chomg accidentally made a good movie, good enough. They unsuccessfully tried a half dozen times or so since then to recapture what it was that worked. And we've had an endless parade of similar attempts, all failures. "Up in Smoke" worked in part because of the times. Dopers individually were useless humans but as a group we all needed them to leaven the edges of society. In a way, we created the "don't worry, be happy" class to give us another horizon to scan, away from the Nixon one. So we already were open, and our stoners stepped into a warm tradition of cinematic humor based on comic intoxication. Oh, we loved our drunks. And so far as movies, we were entering a neo noir era where the whole point of the movie was to not only have the noir notion of hapless innocents caught in capricious events, but also to play with those mechanics. So much the better that the innocents were innocent because they were stoned (and when not might as well have been). It really was a sweet spot and additionally had a fold: the performance was about getting to a performance and then performing. The women were perfect. The times have long since passed when stoners were a desired endearing mix for our idealized world. Now they are a drag, simply stupid. If you want to play with the form, you have to go deep in the folded direction. "Wayne's World" was a classic, really well engineered, that. But the original model lumbers on, and we get old fish heads like this. The writer-star disowned it, and I'm glad to hear it. There's no charm here, nothing to get engaged in even if you try. The movie is stoned itself, sitting there and not caring that we are watching. Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

I wasn't expecting the movie of my life but my expectations were somewhat above what half baked had to "offer" in the end. This movie is probably the most infantile film ever made on any topic. Seriously, it's a "weed" movie for 6 year olds which is a bit of paradox. The only (and I mean ONLY) worthy character is Dave Chapelle. Everyone else is constrained and simply awful. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the theme itself, but the lack of a decent dialogue, a punch line and a script is reason enough to dub this movie: a waste of time money and space. Some people compared Half Baked to F. Gary Gray's: Friday (which is a brilliant film). I wouldn't put them in the same video store. I'm really amazed how they got funding for it in the first place.

Very funny movie. Of the recent 'stoner' flicks, this is probably one of the best. (Probably second in my book to Dude Where's My car?) Ejoyable, entertaining, and weird characters. Dave Chappell is hilarious as always. There are a ton of cameos by great and well known comedians throughout the piece, all paying their homage to the great herb. I myself am not a pot smoker but laughed my rear off anyways, even if I didn't get all of the 'inside' stuff that others may refer too. Chappell is great playing several outlandish characters in the movie. The situations they get themselves into are great and even better how they get out of them. There is ample potty humor as well as pot humor to boot. Well worth the rental fee and your time.

Although I have no problem with stoner-movies, I still have to see the first GOOD one. They are always filled with those stupid clichés; or they hang on to the image of the a-social, apathic pothead who's living in his own mental world or they overrate the pot and make you believe it's some sort of Alice In Wonderland- typo drug. I'm not into judging users or non-users, but this movie is pathetic. 1. The image of the potheads is so lame, a-typical and too American 2. The movie wants to be controversial ("oh wow, a movie about pot, rugged and rough!") but turns out to be oh so politically correct 3. The actors don't know sh*t about acting and the jokes are obviously made for a small amount of people who have NO taste of humour. This movie is made for those people who have nerely smoked one or two joints, but think they're the roughest potheads in town. Kick the habit and watch some real comedies!

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.

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.

Half Baked is funny for all the wrong reasons. We laugh at the antics of pot smoking dumb asses because they are doing all the wrong things. But, it is hilarious nevertheless. Especially with the funny acting of Jim Breuer, Dave Chappelle and Harland Williams. Even the cameos are humorous- including Jon Stewart, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Willie Nelson, and Tommy Chong (Chong is perfect as a small role in the movie). The plot seems kind of basic, but its spiced up for laughs and for people who know what being a dope head is like. Hilarious all around. A+