CHEECH AND CHONG'S NEXT MOVIE (1980) (Blu-ray Review)

CHEECH AND CHONG'S NEXT MOVIE (1980)

Label: Shout! Factory/Shout Select 
Region Code: A
Rating: R
Duration: 95 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: Tommy Chong
Cast: Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong, Cassandra Peterson, Edie McClurg, Phil Hartman, John Paragon, Paul Reubens 

The Cheech and Chong movies were my introduction to the joys of r-rated stoner comedy and irreverent humor, I clearly remember marathoning the first three films on VHS when I was just a kid, it was on a sleepover at the Woodard's house, friends of the family, whose kids were around my age even if we were not close. It was a memorable night, one that culminated with one of my first deep adolescent make-out session, a weird and wonderful night with occasional breaks in the fumbling make-out session as the pretty young lady would make me cookies in her Easy Bake oven, we were that young! Needless to stay that night has stuck with me for decades, for various reasons, but I walked away from it with a love for the movies of Cheech and Chong and a series of awkward post make-out middle school encounters with the young lady, it turned out that it would be a one-night only romance, and apparently one that weirded us both out, as we spoke very little for the next seven years of school, right up till our graduation, and sadly she died not long after that in a car accident.

Anyway, 'nuff about my doomed adolescent romance, the sequel to Up In Smoke (1978) opens with our stoner-duo, low-rider dude Cheech and and his more laid back stoner friend Chong, illegally siphoning gas for their "borrowed" car, getting high while debating the merits of their current employment situations before blowing themselves up in a ball of fire, something having to do with gas fumes and lighting a joint I guess. From there the movie plays out as a series of humorous vignettes/sketches about the lovable losers as they set about creating their own brand of acid-rock and going to the unemployment office for a government handouts, a fun scene that culminates with Chong doing the nasty with a foxy girlfriend Donna (Evelyn Guerrero, The Toolbox Murders) on the floor of her office and an encounter with the "Man of 10,000 Sound Effects" Michael Winslow (from the Police Academy films), in his first on-screen role if my memory serves. 

The movie has very little plot other than the L.A. weed-heads looking to score weed and poontang, the pair are sort of separated for a large portion of the movie as Cheech kicks Chong out of their rundown house so he can score with Donna, sending Chong to pick-up his far out cousin Red (Marin in a dual role) while Cheech stays at home cleaning-up, ironing clothes, drinking tequila and eventually falling asleep, having a series of surreal doped-up dreams, including some strange Aztec necrophilia! Meanwhile Chong and yahoo Red embark on a series of wild L.A. adventures, beginning with Red being kicked-out of his hotel, with the obnoxious desk clerk (Paul Reubens, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure) holding his belongings for ransom until Red can pay for his room. When Chong learns that one of his duffel bags contains 20 pounds of primo homegrown weed the two plot to get it back, and once they do they embark on another series of scattershot L.A. adventures, heading to a brothel before being kicked out, hanging with one of the whores named Candy (Betty Kennedy) at a music shop where they jam out, then hooking up with a hip richie-rich woman named Gloria (Cheech's wife Rikki Marin, Nice Dreams), who takes the trio home to her parents sprawling mansion. Gloria's mother is played by the always shrill and funny Edie McClurg (Ferris Bueller's Day Off), and her father (Sy Kramer) just happens to be one of Candy's best clients at the whorehouse, with a penchant for tying her up, the horrifying encounter making him squirm in his seat over dinner.

Eventually all five end up in the families Rolls Royce smoking and giant-sized joint and headed for a comedy club where they once again encounter an angry Pee-wee Herman, ruining his set by taking it over, and causing him to be thrown out by a huge female bouncer (Faith Minton, The Wanderers). The episodic mess of a film ends with Red and Chong on the run from the law in a Ferrari, headed to his fabled field of week, ending with an alien abduction, yup, you heard me right, it goes there, but it doesn't end there. The aliens are super cool and give the pair a bag of "space coke", which Chong takes back to Cheech, literally sending the pair through the roof. 

The movie starts off strong, like the predecessor the narrative is loose, Cheech and Chong are hilarious, but the introduction of Red is when it begins to lose some steam in my opinion, he's just not that interesting of a character to watch, it feels padded, and I would have rather has our leads together on this adventure, it a bad idea and the movie suffers for it. I still like it but it's a step down from Up In Smoke, but still funny, just more flawed and padded. 

Audio/Video: The 70's stoner comedy classic arrives on Blu-ray from Shout! Factory as part of their Shout Select line, I don't think this is a new transfer from Shout!, but probably an HD master straight from Universal. The image is fairly crisp and pleasing, while there's not a lot of depth the grain is nicely managed and there's some decent fine detail. The English DTS-HD MA 2.0 audio exports the stoner jams, dialogue and Mark Davis (The Night Before) score nicely, also featuring songs great tunes from The Pretenders, Jimmy Reed, The Champs and Ray Charles among others, it has a great soundtrack, plus some Cheech and Chong originals like "Mexican American" and "Beaner". Optional English subtitles are included. 

For those curious, this version does not contain any of the legendary TV version footage, known as the "diamond" cut, containing additional scenes not included on the theatrical release, which if memory serves included an animated intro and scenes of them boarding the alien ship at the end. However, this is the original theatrical release with the original music score and dialogue intact, which had been altered on some previous home video releases. While I know fans were clamoring for the TV edit of this to be included I do commend Shout for rectifying the altered dialogue and music and staying true to the original theatrical version. 

Onto the extras we have the theatrical trailer, five minutes of radio spots and a brand new 19-min interview with Cheech Marin who speaks about the making of the movie, the influence of the L.A. characters they observed on the streets, the difference between making comedy albums and the movies, working with the Groundlings crew, how in real life that he and Chong were both very disciplined, health conscious and reserved. It's a good listen, would have loved a commentary or some input from writer/director/actor Tommy Chong, but what we do get is good. The release comes housed in a standard blue keepcase, with a sleeve of reversible artwork, both significant improvements over the awful 2003 DVD artwork from Universal.   

Special Features: 
- NEW Interview With Cheech Marin (19 min) HD 
- Theatrical Trailer (3 min) 
- Radio Spots (5 min) 


The movie is totally disjointed, directed by Tommy Chong himself, the movie doesn't have a lot of visual flair or style, but the comedy is strong and it always makes me laugh, a lot. Marin and Chong were pioneers of irreverent stoner comedy, both on LP and on film, and while the movie narrative is disjointed as Hell it still works for me on the whole, this is a fun, crude stoner jam. 3/5

ALLAN QUATERMAIN AND THE LOST CITY OF GOLD (1987)

ALLAN QUATERMAIN AND THE LOST CITY OF GOLD (1987) 

Label: Olive Films
Release Date: March 31st 2015
Region Code: A
Rating: PG
Duration: 99 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0
Video: HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Gary Nelson
Cast: Richard Chamberlain, Sharon Stone, James Earl Jones, Cassandra Peterson, Robert Donner, Henry Silva

I remember watching King Solomon's Mines (1985) in a second-run theatre sometime in '86 and enjoying it quite a bit. At the time I would have been thirteen and already a huge fan of the Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark plus the sequel and this was something squarely designed to cash-in on the success of that action-adventure blockbuster and the following series of adventure-romance films like Romancing the Stone. Coming into this viewing I thought for sure I had watched this but now I am doubting if I even knew there was a sequel to begin with, so it was a pleasure to watched this with a fresh set of eyes.

It appears to be a few months after the events of the first film and Allan Quatermain (Richard Chamberlain, The Swarm) and his fiance Jesse Huston (Sharon Stone, Total Recall) are living comfortably on a plantation in Africa with plans to travel to America where they will e wedded. Jesse is clearly beside herself with happiness at the prospect of marrying but adventurer Allan doesn't seem quite ready to forgo the adventuring lifestyle just yet. As fate would have it the night before they are to embark to the US a stranger arrives at their estate and dies shortly after, but not before informing Quatermain that his long lost brother Robeson (Martin Rabbett) has found the legendary Lost City of Gold and is being held captive there by a lost race of white people. With this information in hand Jess and Quatermain put together a hasty expedition into the heart of the African jungle and along the way they enlist the help of an African warrior named Umslopogaas (James Earl Jones, Conan the Barbarian) and a cowardly Fakir named Swarma (Robert Donner, Vanishing Point).

Our adventurers must cross the treacherous Sahara desert and only just barely survive elaborate booby traps and an attack by a swarm of warrior tribesmen during which Umslopogaas brandishes his battle axe like the whirling blades of a fan thereby dispelling the numerous spear and arrows hurled at them. It's a scene straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon and poor James Earl Jones has this look on his face that clearly says I only did this for the money. Afterward Quatermain launches fireworks into the air and of course the the primitive tribesmen assume he must be some sort of white devil, thus they allow the adventures passage through their territory unscathed. There's some sketchy race stereotypes throughout the movie, the primitive people are depicted about as poorly as you would expect from an Italian cannibal from the '70s, just has a slightly larger budget but this is clearly an PG rated exploitation film. The worst offender is the portrayal of the bug-eyed Indian mystic Swarma, a cowardly and greedy type who craves the golden treasures of the lost city and is the butt of many a joke.

The action-adventure set pieces are fun if a bit uninspired, an underground river puts the group up against serpents and a geyser of flame threatens to consume them but the preceding underground rapids ride will douse your enthusiasm long before the first canoe goes up in flames as the cast comically duck out of the way of low-hanging rocks through what looks like a water slide.

Arriving at the Lost City of Gold Quatermain is reunited with his long lost brother who has not been help captive against his will but is enjoying life in the idyllic village, which is not all that impressive, for a Lost City of Gold this pace is a letdown. The city is ruled by two sister Queens, the good Queen Nyleptha (Aileen Marson) and the evil Queen Sorais (Cassandra Peterson of Elvira notoriety), the latter of whom has aligned herself with the High Priest, Agon (Henry Silva, Ghost Dog). Agon is a frizzy haired weirdo who brought to mind Kevin Dubrow, the late singer of Quiet Riot. The maniacal high priest enjoys his power over the community and leads through fear, regularly dipping his followers headfirst into a vat of molten gold creating a series of macabre statues. It's not quite Temple of Doom but that's what they're going for, it's a pretty lazy script through and through, and feels very episodic without the benefit of any proper follow through.

As you might expect our adventures must wage war against the evil priest and free the city from his tyranny so it can once again return to the ways of an idyllic and peaceful society... or some such nonsense. The finale is overwrought and runs out of steam long before our adventures enter the Lost City of Gold. The finale features Quatermain melting an enormous statue of a lion which stops Agon and his followers in their tracks in an ironic sort of way, it's certainly silly.

Richard Chamberlain is an easy guy to like with charisma to spare, some decent comic timing, he seems game but there's only so much he can do with what's written on the page, and this is some weak stuff. Sharon Stone has even less to work with in what amounts to a cameo as a woman in distress that just pops up from time to time, pretty sure this was not a break-out role for her.

At the end of the day this is what you have come to expect from a Cannon Films action-adventure film, these are after all the same fine people who brought you Ninja III: The Domination (1984), and if you loved that gem of b-movie making I can pretty much guarantee you will find enough to enjoy with this one. Obviously after years of digesting cheap Italian knock-offs I have developed a high tolerance (or maybe even a craving) for this type of stuff and I am pleased as punch to see it on Blu-ray from Olive Films.

Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold arrives on Blu-ray from Olive Films with an AVC encoded transfer in the original scope aspect ratio, the image is pretty decent but grain seems to be unnaturally heavy throughout, but there is a decent amount of fine detail and some minor depth to the image. It may not be Criterion-worthy, but it's certainly Cannon-worthy, just kidding. The English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 does a decent job exporting dialogue, score and effects. Notably much of the score is recycled from the first film which is largely a poor man's knock-off of John Williams iconic Indiana Jones score, apologies to Jerry Goldsmith, but true.

Unfortunately the only extra on the disc is a trailer for the feature film, there's no making of documentary, no audio commentary or a booklet with new writing on the film from some random film historian. This having been a Golan-Globus production there must be some entertaining behind-the-scenes anecdotes someone could have shared with us. but it was not to be. I do appreciate just having this trashy action-adventure sequel in HD, while it may not be a great slice of action-adventure cinema I do find it to be a great deal of fun with a few cold brews and couch full of friends.