Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Cheech And Chong's Next Movie

Collapse
X
Collapse
  •  
    Ian Jane
    Administrator

  • Cheech And Chong's Next Movie



    Released by: Shout! Factory
    Released on: June 13th, 2017.
    Director: Tommy Chong
    Cast: Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong, Paul Reubens, Edie McClurg, Evelyn Guerrero
    Year: 1980
    Purchase From Amazon

    The Movie:

    Following up the success of their debut film Up In Smoke, Cheech And Chong's Next Movie once again follows the stoned exploits of potheads Cheech (Cheech Marin) and Chong (Tommy Chong). It's more a series of sketches than a cohesive narrative but the plot basically begins when Cheech loses his job working for a movie production house when he takes the company van home without permission. From there, the two (now unemployed) guys decide to hit the welfare office for some easy cash. Here Cheech gets his girlfriend Donna (Evelyn Guerrero) fired when they're caught having sex in a back room. Regardless of this, later that night she decides she's going to come and pay him a visit at their run down Los Angeles home.

    With Donna en route, Cheech tries to get rid of Chong for the night so they'll have the place to themselves. He does this by sending him to help out his cousin Red (Marin again) who is staying at a nearby hotel. When Chong arrives it turns out that Red doesn't have the money to pay for his stay, which causes the manager (Pee-Wee Herman himself, Paul Reubens) to call the cops. When it turns out that Red's luggage is locked in his room and that one of the bags is full of weed, Chong manages to get it out and the duo escape just as the cops arrive. From here, Red and Chong get super baked and go out on the town, partying with some prostitutes at a massage parlor, messing up a music shop, crashing at a rich family's home and eventually making their way to a comedy club, all while Cheech waits at home for Donna to arrive.

    Cheech And Chong's Next Movie is not high (ha!) art, but it is pretty entertaining. There's very little story here (though there is enough) but the movie has enough inspired lunacy to keep things going at a pretty good pace throughout. Like a lot of the duo's work together, this one plays to a hard R rating dealing with crass sexual encounters, racial humor and stereotypes (Cheech's Mexican American musical number followed by Chong's Beaners song is a classic example), digs at different social classes rich and poor (as exhibited by the scenes in the welfare office and the mansion alike), scatological comedy and more drug jokes than you can shake a doobie at. But it works. It's hard not to laugh at the stupidity of it all, and while Cheech and Chong might make for the worst neighbors ever their highly unlikely but no less amusing exploits have typically always been fun to watch. There's also some very genuine, if completely random, creativity on display here not just in where the set pieces take us, but in the film's ludicrous finale as well.

    On top of that, the movie also features some fun bit part players - Paul Reubens appears in the film not just as Paul Reubens playing the hotel clerk but also as Pee-Wee Herman in the comedy club scene. Additionally, this film is an early role for Edie McClurg and look for Cassandra "Elvira" Peterson in a tiny role as an actress on a movie set before Cheech gets fired. Michael Winslow, the sound effect guy from the Police Academy movies has a scene where he harasses Chong in the welfare office while Pee-Wee's Playhouse alumni John Paragon (who played Jambi) and the late Phil Hartman also have small parts in the film.

    Video/Audio/Extras:

    Shout! Factory presents Cheech And Chong's Next Movie on Blu-ray in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed at 1.85.1 widescreen. It's hard to imagine anyone taking issue with the visuals here. Colors are reproduced well enough and detail is quite strong throughout the movie. There are no issues with noise reduction or edge enhancement and compression artifacts never really figure into things either. There's some film grain noticeable throughout but very little in the way of actual print damage to note. All in all this is clean, colorful and quite film like and it offers a pretty decent over the previous DVD release.

    Audio is provided in English language DTS-HD 2.0 Mono with optional subtitles in English only. The track sounds clean and clear and there are no issues with any hiss or distortion. The levels are properly balanced and there are no issues with any noticeable hiss or distortion to complain about.

    The main extra on the disc is an interview with Cheech Marin that runs just under twenty minutes. Here he talks about how he and Chong were stuck in a law suit after their first film that delayed the second film, before then going on to talk about the difference between doing comedy on record then on film. He talks about how they were working at the height of their creativity during the making of this movie, some of their influences early in their career, how some of their better known characters evolved over time, working with some of the guest stars including Paul Reubens as well as Edie McClurg and quite a bit more. It's a genuinely interesting interview that fans should appreciate.

    Aside from that we get a few radio spots, a trailer for the feature, menus and chapter selection.

    The Final Word:

    Stoner comedies are a dime a dozen these days but Cheech And Chong's Next Movie still holds up well, a gleefully stupid movie that's as delightfully crass as it is genuinely creative and sincerely wacked out. Shout! Factory's Blu-ray release isn't stacked with extras but it does look and sounds quite good - fans should appreciate this one, it's a really fun way to kill ninety minutes and countless brain cells.

    Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!





















    • Ian Miller
      #1
      Ian Miller
      Flattery and foreplay
      Ian Miller commented
      Editing a comment
      I remember going to see WHOLLY MOSES with Dudley Moore and staying through intermission to watch the trailer for this a second time!
    Posting comments is disabled.

Latest Articles

Collapse

  • Hot Spur (Severin Films) Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Severin Films
    Released on: April 30th, 2024.
    Director: Lee Frost
    Cast: Joseph Mascolo, Virginia Goodman, John Alderman
    Year: 1969
    Purchase From Amazon

    Hot Spur – Movie Review:

    Director Lee Frost and Producer Bob Cresse's film, Hot Spur, opens in Texas in 1869 with a scene where a pair of cowboys wanders into a bar where they call over a pretty Mexican waitress and coerce her into dancing for them. She obliges, but
    ...
    03-22-2024, 11:53 AM
  • Death Squad (Mondo Macabro) Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Mondo Macabro
    Released on: April 9th, 2024.
    Director: Max Pecas
    Cast: Thierry de Carbonnières, Jean-Marc Maurel, Denis Karvil, Lillemour Jonsson
    Year: 1985
    Purchase From Amazon

    Death Squad – Movie Review:

    Also known as Brigade Of Death, French sleaze auteur Max Pecas’ 1985 film, Death Squad, opens with a night time scene outside of Paris in the Bois de Boulogne Forest where cars pass by a small gang of transsexual
    ...
    03-22-2024, 11:46 AM
  • Roommates (Quality X) Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Quality X
    Released on: February 28th, 2024.
    Director: Chuck Vincent
    Cast: Samantha Fox, Vernoica Hart, Kelly Nichols, Jerry Butler, Jamie Gillis
    Year: 1982
    Purchase From Amazon

    Roommates – Movie Review:

    Directed by Chuck Vincent and released in 1982, Roommates opens with a scene where a young woman named Joan Harmon (Veronica Hart) gets a hotel room with an older man named Ken (Don Peterson, credited as Phil Smith),
    ...
    03-15-2024, 01:10 PM
  • Night Of The Blood Monster (Blue Underground) UHD/Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Blue Underground
    Released on: March 26th, 2024.
    Director: Jess Franco
    Cast: Christopher Lee, Maria Rohm, Dennis Price
    Year: 1970
    Purchase From Amazon

    Night Of The Blood Monster – Movie Review:

    Directed by Jess Franco, The Bloody Judge (or, Night Of The Blood Monster, as it is going by on this new release from Blue Underground) isn't quite the salacious exercise in Eurotrash you might expect it to be, and while it
    ...
    03-15-2024, 01:07 PM
  • Phase IV (Vinegar Syndrome) UHD/Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
    Released on: March 26th, 2024.
    Director: Saul Bass
    Cast: Nigel Davenport, Michael Murphy, Lynne Frederick, Alan Gifford, Robert Henderson, Helen Horton
    Year: 1974
    Purchase From Amazon

    Phase IV – Movie Review:

    Saul Bass’ 1974 sci-fi/thriller Phase IV is an interesting blend of nature run amuck stereotypes and Natural Geographic style nature footage mixed into one delicious cocktail of suspense and
    ...
    03-15-2024, 01:02 PM
  • The Bounty Hunter Trilogy (Radiance Films) Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Radiance Films
    Released on: March 26th, 2024.
    Director: Shigehiro Ozawa, Eiichi Kudo
    Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Minoru Ôki, Arashi Kanjuro, Bin Amatsu, Chiezo Kataoka
    Year: 1969-1972
    Purchase From Amazon

    The Bounty Hunter Trilogy – Movie Review:

    Radiance Films gathers together the three films in Toie Studios’ Bounty Hunter Trilogy, starring the inimitable Tomisaburo Wakayama. Here’s how the three movies in this
    ...
    03-13-2024, 11:30 AM
Working...
X