This Weekend’s Film Festival Celebrates The Best Stoner Flicks

Someone says stoner flick and you think about high people acting dumb. But not all stoner flicks are dumb. With PINEAPPLE EXPRESS arriving on DVD this week, This Weekend's Film Festival takes a look at the five best stoner flicks. We have something fruity. We have something served up with Ice Cube. We have two heterosexual life partners. We have a whole high school class. And no stoner party would be complete without The Dude.

David Gordon Green's PINEAPPLE EXPRESS is a major departure from his previous moody Southern gothic work. But as I said in my original review, "The daring moviegoer who likes all kinds of films will care about Dale and Saul as they laugh about what idiots they are." Penned by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the duo behind the surprisingly good SUPERBAD, this stoner flick takes absurd developments and silliness and wraps it around two compelling characters. Like all good stoner comedies, the film isn't funny because the characters are stoned, but it's funny because how getting stoned brings out the characters' personalities… and how it gets them in trouble. Rogen stars as subpoena server Dale Denton. One night on a job, he witnesses a murder by drug dealer Ted Jones (Gary Cole). In a panic, Dale runs to the apartment of his dealer Saul Silver, played hilariously by James Franco. Turns out, Cole is Saul's provider forcing the two to go on the run. Through their run-ins with the cops and various thugs bent on killing them, they only dig themselves deeper and deeper into an impossible situation. Stoner flicks are often buddy comedies, and Dale and Saul are a great comedic duo. Franco, known as that guy from SPIDER-MAN, emerged from the film as a star. The title might be a drug reference, but the film is about friendship.

Friendship is key to the next film, FRIDAY. After BOYZ N THE HOOD and MENACE II SOCIETY made black urban stories hot, Ice Cube wanted to show a lighter side of the hood. Along with co-writer DJ Pooh and director F. Gary Gray, they rolled this stoner flick about two friends hanging out on a Friday with nothing to do. Loose plots are common in stoner flicks, but that doesn't mean they have to be random. Driven by a crime story involving a drug dealer, the slice-of-life movie is more interested in portraying a less dramatic side of life in South Central. Ice Cube showed his comedic skills for the first time alongside his co-star Chris Tucker, who made a major impression with his best performance to date. In playing Ice Cube's father, John Witherspoon prevents Tucker from stealing all the laughs in a performance where nearly every word that comes out of his mouth is funny. Acting is about reaction, and the same can be said about comedy sometimes too. Ice Cube's Craig and Tucker's Smokey's reactions to their neighborhood creates the humor. FRIDAY tries to say that the hood wasn't all violence and hardship; there were good times too. As I said in my original review, "Whether you get high or not, or ever lived in the hood, most people can relate to two young friends hanging out at home on a lazy day. That’s what works and makes this not just another pointless stoner flick."

JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK has many of the elements of the stoner flick — a rambling plot, drug references and a comedic central duo. How much people actually get high in the film is something that I don't remember. That's a very good thing. With this film, Kevin Smith made the ultimate in-joke movie. For most people it works as a very good spoof of Hollywood, but for Smith fans, the film is loaded with references to his other films. Past actors like Ben Affleck and Chris Rock play multiple characters, as well as themselves in some cases. It's a pop culture cameo smorgasbord. As I said in my original review, "It’s like Smith’s version of SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT." But the central premise is that drug dealers Jay and Silent Bob are on a mission to travel from New Jersey to Hollywood to stop the production of the movie based on their comic book alter egos, Bluntman and Chronic. As is a staple of stoner flicks, a crazy cast of characters and run-ins with the law come with the territory — this time involving four hot animal activists/ action heroines. Smith takes the chance to put his popular Jay and Silent Bob characters front and center in a silly, yet very funny comedy, providing the filmmaker the best opening weekend of his career to date.

This Weekend's Film Festival closes with the two best stoner flicks of all time. Set over one 24-hour period with a meandering loose plot, DAZED AND CONFUSED has a lot in common with other films in the lineup. Director Richard Linklater's nostalgic look back at the 1970s is much like George Lucas' nostalgic look back at the 1950s in AMERICAN GRAFFITI. Drug experimentation surrounds the central premise. The football coach wants all his players to sign a pledge that states that they will be drug free. As I said in my original review, "It’s the kind of thing kids sign, while smoking a joint." Randall "Pink" Floyd (Jason London) is the star quarterback and doesn't want to sign. He believes he's a hypocrite if he does, and believes the school are hypocrite for even asking, knowing that players will just go smoke pot anyway. The film takes place on the last day of school. The new seniors are primed to haze in the new freshman. Pink takes baseball player Mitch Kramer under his wing, trying to help him navigate the troubled waters of high school and enjoy his first high school party. David Wooderson, played wonderfully by Matthew McConaughey, is the high school grad that continues to hang with the kids. He's constantly stoned, and represents a possible sad future for Pink. The drug elements in DAZED AND CONFUSED are not the point; it's the capturing of youthful rebellion that makes this film a classic.

With THE BIG LEBOWSKI, the Coen Brother perfected the stoner flick formula. The rambling crime plot seems pointless until you look closer and realize there is a cleverly crafted story pulling us through a city of kooks. Our heroes are The Dude, played in an iconic performance by Jeff Bridges, and Walter Sobchak, in a brilliant, career best performance from John Goodman. As I said in my original review, "They’re one of the screen’s best buddy duos." Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski is the classic stoned aging hippie. His life is based around bowling, smoking pot and drinking White Russians. When he is mistaken for another Jeffrey Lebowski whose trophy wife owes money all over town, The Dude gets pulled into a kidnapping plot, which begins with a thug peeing on his beloved rug. The cast is filled with eccentrics, but none of them overshadow the "odd couple" of The Dude and Walter, a reactionary Viet Nam vet, who gets The Dude in more trouble than he started in with his ill-conceived big ideas. Through this plot, the Coens' fascinating characters shine through, and become far more interesting than the mystery, which ends before the movie does. Some complain that the final few scenes feel tacked on, but they represent the perfect stoner philosophy. Between birth and death, chapters in our lives end, but life goes on, so we must abide.

Whoa, I gotta eat some chips or somethin'. To join the party all you have to do is head to your local video store, update the Netflix queue, check out Zap2It.com for TV listings, or help support This Weekend's Film Festival by buying the films on DVD at the below links.