Up in Smoke

Up in Smoke (1978) was the comic team of Cheech and Chong's big screen debut. After selling a ton of albums during the early and mid-seventies, the duo finally got a chance to star in their own picture. Anthony "Man" Stoner (Tommy Chong) is a rich kid who's still living the hippie life and enjoys pot. Pedro De Pacas (Cheech Marin) is a kid from East L.A. who's into three things: gaudy car upholstery, rock music and finding smoke. This would be the first of several movies starring these two characters (or different variations of them).

Anthony Stoner leaves his rich parents house after a falling out over getting a job. His car breaks down near the ocean. But his savior arrives in the form of Pedro De Pacas. Pedro is cruising for girls when he meets Anthony. Th two strike up a friendship and the movie goes off in several different and bizarre directions. What kind of adventures do Anthony and Pedro get into? You'll just have to find out for yourself when you watch UP IN SMOKE.

A funny film that'll keep you laughing from beginning to end. Tommy Chong and Cheech Marin play the ultimate slackers. All they want to do is partying and smoke a lot of dope. This movie was followed by several sequels.

Highly recommended.

Basically an excuse for Cheech and Chong to get into a series of marijuana adventures, "Up in Smoke" is a hoot from beginning to end. Pedro De Pacas (Cheech Marin) and Anthony "Man" Stoner (Tommy Chong) are a pair of slackers who wonder So Cal and Mexico looking for some weed, while the narcs look for any excuse to arrest them. There are some scenes that will probably make your eyes pop out, just due to the surprise factor. You just watch this sort of movie and think "The '70s...those were the good old days." Also, it was interesting seeing Strother Martin and Edie Adams as Chong's character's parents. Seeing as to how they were part of my grandparents' generation, I wouldn't expect to see them in a marijuana movie.

Of all the Cheech & Chong movies made, I think this one, their first, was their best. There's no real story line you have to follow. The point of this movie was to make you laugh. No messages or extra drama. It's the kind of movie to just sit back and laugh at. I do realize that this movie is definitely not for everyone. Some parents might not want to let their children see it and some people may not want to watch it themselves. The movie features a lot of drugs and some drug use (In case you're not familiar with Cheech & Chong movies). However, if you're not offended by that, and you've never seen this movie before, you should check it out for a good laugh!

This 1979 Paramount release introduced the controversial radio comedians Richard "Cheech" Marin and Thomas Chong to the screen for the first of six major film teamings and cameos together in several other films. This first teaming is the best teaming. The duo portray stoners who travel together on a road trip down to Tijuana on a mission to pick up a fresh new drug supply. However, they're being pursued by frantic cops all the way. A cult spoof classic and a film that began a new kind of wacky film comedy.

The counterculture was long dead and ripe for retrospective satire. Into the opportunity stepped two pro comics who after trying other things, built these characters. When comics work up a world for years and then brings it to a movie, it bodes well. Mike Myers would follow almost precisely this formula later with "Wayne's World."

The jokes are still pretty funny, many of them. Not the stuff with the flumoxxed cops or the folks who inadvertently get stoned (and get the munchies). But the bits of comic timing associated with the guys as if they were on stage.

Two bits to watch out for. One is two incidental women. The first has a scene only a minute long. A girl comes in, mistakes scouring powder for coke, snuffs it up and has the most comic facial expressions I have even seen on film. This is one of those priceless moments in film. I hope IMDb at some point figures out some means to vote on particular scenes. This girl would in life become an addict and a bag lady.

The second girl has a bigger role: Zane Buzby is one of the hippie stoner cheesecake babes that join the trip. She's got a less flashy role, but in ad libs created most of the situations in which she appears. She would go on to become one of TeeVee's most attuned comedy directors.

So you can see this as two stage personalities that are good, with these two women, who are also as good, surrounded by some disposable situations and jokes.

But there is another something interesting. The end of this comic show is a comic show within, the guys as a rock band in possibly the best Cheech and Chong sequence of all their movies. Everything from about 20 minutes into the film to this is a journey to this show, I suspect that "The Muppet Movie" of the following year was influenced by this.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.