A while back, my roommate ordered a bunch of Cheech and Chong movies through Netflix. We've watched two of them, the first being Nice Dreams and the other being Things Are Tough All Over
I don't see why these movies are so popular. They're not funny. Between the two movies I laughed, maybe four times and those were chuckles. Great comedy it is not. It doesn't even come close. I brought this up and my old roommate said that I don't smoke pot, which is true. However I am immature and easily amused. This has often been an acceptable substitute in the past.
I staunchly defend Dude, Where's My Car? even though my brain keeps telling me to stop enjoying it as much as I do. It really is a stupid movie, I'm not going to try to argue against that. But the writers know that and let the film revel in it. As goofy and dumb as the script is, it is still funny, hilarious even. Kutcher and William Scott play off each other well and their characters actually do develop some depth as the movie progresses. Even the ridiculous story tops anything Cheech and Chong can conjure up.
The Harold and Kumar movies are another example of stoner movies done right. They're silly and ridiculous but I still laugh when I see them, actual laughter, not just a brief chuckle.
The fault lies purely on the writing. The jokes are all lame and the plots are stupid, even for stoner movies. There is no character development whatsoever nor is there any semblance of a story. I'm all for stupid movies but these movies aren't even trying. Dude, Where's My Car? may have only given us a galactic weapon of mass destruction hidden inside of a Rubik's cube but at least it's something. There's the quest to follow their trail to find the titular car. An actual story unfolds before your eyes. The Cheech and Chong movies give you nothing. It's just there for 90 minutes and than that's it.
I've seen several of Chong's guest appearances on That 70's Show and there he is essentially playing the same character as he has played in all of the movies. Yet, I find that hilarious, burned out stoners can be very funny, but you need to bring something to the table, not just expect that to be enough to get a laugh.
I'm not against stoner comedies. I just want good stoner comedies. This may seem like an oxymoron but it really isn't. Having movies that rely solely on your audience smoking pot in order to enjoy it is not the way to approach the script writing process. I have absolutely no experience writing scripts, but I know that what they did was not good script writing.
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