PLANET SICK-BOY: http://www.sick-boy.com
I admit it. I was actually looking forward to seeing this movie. A snappy pothead comedy laced with dick and shit jokes. Well, it turned out to be not so snappy and, would you believe, not one mention of dicks or shit. What a disappointment.
This is the first pot movie since the heyday of Cheech & Chong and, sadly, left me yearning for the days of Nice Dreams. Half Baked tries to double the fun with four stoners instead of the conventional two. There's Thurgood Jenkins (Chappelle), a janitor at Frankensence & Burr Laboratories, who narrates the story. There's Brian (Breur) a burnt record store employee and Scarface (Diaz), who works in a burger joint. And don't forget Kenny (Williams), the sensitive kindergarten teacher.
After work each day, they meet at Jenkins house and light up Billy Bong Thornton and then fight over which toker is on `munchie' patrol. On this fateful evening, Kenny goes out for the snack foods and happens upon a police horse named Buttercup. Kenny feeds the horse all of the junk food and is horrified to see the horse drop dead. Apparently, Buttercup was diabetic and Kenny is arrested for killing an officer in the line of duty. The bail is set at $1,000,000 and, thus, the plot comes to life: Sell enough pot to free Kenny!
Somehow, Jenkins has access to an unlimited supply of pharmaceutical marijuana at work and the four hit the streets to raise Kenny's bail. Of course, a film like this wouldn't be complete with out the following stock characters: the love interest (named Mary Jane and played by Rachel True), the rival drug lord (Clarence Williams III) and the strange guy who's been asleep on the couch for years (Steven Wright). OK, maybe that last one wasn't standard fare. There were also a few bad cameos (Snoop Doggy Dogg, Janeane Garofalo & John Stewart) and a few good ones (Bob Saget, Willie Nelson & Tommy Chong). `David', the guy who got thrown out of house on the second season of MTV's `The Real World' also makes an appearance, but who cares?
Don't get me wrong, there were some very funny scenes. There is a high point when Thurgood takes Mary Jane on a date with only $8 in his pocket. As the date progresses, a counter on the bottom of the screen shows how much he has left. Kenny's tearful avoidance of painful jail ass sex is also amusing. Hey, ass sex is almost like a dick and/or shit joke, isn't it?
I expected better from this group of people. Director Tamra Davis worked on the hilarious Billy Madison and CB4. Maybe it was the script, which was co-written by Chappelle (The Nutty Professor). In addition to Jenkins, he also played rap star Sir Smoke A Lot.
Granted, this probably would have been a lot better if I burnt a big fatty before it started and I'm sure that's what the target audience of this film will probably do. Maybe the theaters should hand weed out to the patrons as they file into the theater.
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