Overall Rating
  Awesome: 61.25%
Worth A Look: 27.5%
Average: 2.5%
Pretty Bad: 3.75%
Total Crap: 5%
1 review, 74 user ratings
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| Half Baked |
by Brian McKay
"This is your brain making you laugh your ass off on drugs - any questions?"
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Dave Chapelle is a comedic genius, as anyone who's seen the first two seasons of CHAPELLE'S SHOW on Comedy Central can attest. He's also a notorious stoner, which gives him an instant built-in audience. His earlier (and most popular) endeavour, HALF BAKED, is the quintessential stoner celluloid anthem. And while it's pretty funny even sober (despite some dips into gross stupidity), it's gasping-for-air funny after two or three hits of some good hydro-grown chronic (or maybe I just hit the pipe too hard).Chapelle plays Thurgood Jenkins, a part-time janitor and full-time stoner who shares his apartment with his three buddies. They are played by Chapelle's fellow comedian (and stoner) Jim Bruer, as well as the hilarious Guillermo Diaz and slightly out-of-place Harland Williams (Bruer and Diaz have reprised their roles a few times in guest appearances on Chapelle's Show). Oh, and they also share their apartment with "The Guy on the Couch" (Stephen Wright), although where he came from is unclear even to them.
When one of the buddies accidentally kills a diabetic police horse by feeding it junk food, and is then thrown in jail for "Killing a police officer", the other three decide to start selling weed in order to bail him out, before his anal virginity is plucked like a budding orchid by some 6-foot tall musclebound inmate. The only problem is, they don't know where to get enough weed to sell - until Jenkins stumbles upon a lab in the building where he works, one that specializes in government marijuana research and has bricks upon bricks of the stuff laying about.
Using pilfered requisition forms, they check out obscene amounts of weed and start selling it all over New York. But things get complicated when Thurgood meets the sexy (and ironically named) Mary Jane Potman (Rachel True), who hates stoners and drug dealers because her miscreant dad was one of them. And of course the boys will end up getting into trouble with both the cops and a rival drug dealer (and his gang of female ninja porn-star types) before all is said and done.
Is it silly? of course. Is it far fetched and lacking a shred of "real-life" believability? Well duh, it's made by stoners and for stoners! (Chapelle should start his own clothing line - FSBS). But is it funny? It's fucking hilarious, son! (Until the weed starts wearing off, at which point it's just pretty amusing). But the plot is incidental, since the whole thing is just one big long running stoner in-joke (although non-stoners will probably find some amusement in it). The writing schizophrenically vacillates between clever and borderline-retarded, but when all is said and done it's quite possibly one of the best stoner comedies ever made, easily on par with the works of Cheech and Chong. It also gets a nice boost from some amusing celebrity cameos, which include Jon Stewart, Janine Garafalo, Willie Nelson, and of course, Snoop Dogg. But the real kicker? Bob Saget, talking about how he used to "Suck dick for Coke". Not only is it one of the funniest lines in the movie, but it almost makes me recant every nasty thing I ever said about him and his bland and watered down approach to humor on that inane "Most unfunny, annoying, and poorly-staged Home Videos" series.The joys of this movie are like the joys of getting high. You either get it, or you don't. Sure, it gets a bit played out at the end, even at a scant 82 minute running time (which is about when the weed starts to wear off, coincidentally). But Chapelle's comedic leading-man charisma, a mostly solid supporting cast, and a plethora of witty bong jokes, make HALF BAKED a stoner's movie collection essential.
link directly to this review at http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=102&reviewer=258
originally posted: 04/20/04 10:55:11
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USA
16-Jan-1998 (R)
DVD: 15-Feb-2005
UK
N/A
Australia
N/A
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