Tweet
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!
