Half Baked (R) no stars
The title of the comedy Half Baked actually gives the film a lot more credit than it deserves. Despite a few amusing moments and sporadic flashes of wit and creativity, this silly and strange film as a whole is so undercooked that its entirety can be summed up in three letters: P-O-T.
Even though it clocks in at only 82 minutes, Dave Chappelle and Neal Brennan's script for Half Baked features barely enough plot to sustain even that brief of a running time. The threadbare storyline focuses on the marijuana-selling operation pothead buddies Thurgood (Chappelle), Brian (Jim Breuer), and Scarface (Guillermo Diaz) create to raise bail money for their friend Kenny (Harland Williams), who is in jail for inadvertently killing a diabetic police horse by feeding it junk food (don't ask).
Aside from a forced romantic subplot between Thurgood and the staunchly anti-drug Mary Jane (Rachel True), the above is all Half Baked has in the way of plot. This would not be a problem if there were at least something funny going on. But there really isn't--though director Tamra Davis can be credited with at least trying to make something unique. Part of what gives the film a decidedly strange feel is its reliance on elaborate, sometimes inventive, sight gags, most of these depict the characters' state of mind while high. While some of the gags are interesting, such as the young Thurgood envisioning and eating giant-sized candy bars after he has his first puff, there are also quite a few lame ones, such as a recurring bit where characters float in the air after trying some especially strong product (in one instance, the wires carrying the actors are visible). But these mildly amusing (at best) gags are nothing more than an obvious disguise for the thinness of the premise, as is the parade of celebrity cameos, encompassing the likes of Snoop Doggy Dogg, Willie Nelson, Janeane Garofalo, Stephen Baldwin, Steven Wright, Jon Stewart, and Bob Saget. Strip all that away and what remains is lots of smoking, the main trio acting stoned (Breuer especially lays it on thick), and even more talk _about_ smoking. Needless to say, all the pot use, wild antics while high, and discussion about marijuana gets very old after a while--like five minutes.
I must say that I was actually found more amusement from Half Baked, which was not screened in advance for critics (shocker), than I originally expected. The filmmakers obviously tried to make something strange and different, which the film indeed is. It's just that they forgot to come up with more than one joke, and the one that they do have isn't very funny.
Michael Dequina mrbrown@ucla.edu | michael_jordan@geocities.com | mj23@the18thhole.com mrbrown@michaeljordanfan.com | mj23@michaeljordanfan.com mrbrown23@juno.com | mrbrown@iname.com | mst3k@digicron.com
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