Cheech and Chong's Next Movie
Cheech and Chong's Next Movie | |
---|---|
Directed by | Tommy Chong |
Written by | Tommy Chong Cheech Marin |
Produced by | Howard Brown |
Starring | Cheech Marin Tommy Chong |
Cinematography | King Baggot Nick McLean |
Edited by | Thomas K. Avildsen Scott Conrad |
Music by | Mark Davis |
Color process | Technicolor |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 94 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $41.7 million |
Cheech and Chong's Next Movie is a 1980 American comedy film directed by Tommy Chong and the second feature-length project by Cheech & Chong, following Up in Smoke, released by Universal Pictures.[1]
Plot
Cheech answers the phone call from Donna, sets up a date, and goes to tell Chong to get lost so he can clean the house and get ready for Donna. The phone rings again with Cheech thinking it's Donna and turns out to be Red, Cheech's "kinda" cousin, with money problems and a plea for help. Cheech asks Chong to pick up his cousin and hang out with him as Cheech informs him they have similar interests like "go to clubs," "get plenty of chicks," and "likes to get high." Chong heads off to the hotel where Red is staying and arrives to find him in a dispute with the receptionist over how much the room is costing ("$37.50 a week, not a goddamned day!"). The receptionist is holding his luggage, consisting of a boom-box, a suitcase, and a 20-pound canvas bag full of high-grade
Later, on the corner, a roller-skater invites them to a "party," which is in fact a
Cast
- Cheech Marin as Cheech / Dwayne 'Red' Mendoza
- Tommy Chong as Chong
- Evelyn Guerrero as Donna
- Pee-Wee Herman
- Betty Kennedy as Candy
- Sy Kramer as Mr. Neatnik
- Rikki Marin as Gloria
- Edie McClurg as Gloria's Mother
- Bob McClurg as Charlie "Chicken Charlie"
- John Paragon as Director
- Jake Steinfeld as Wamba
- Cassandra Peterson and Rita Wilson as Hostages
- Michael Winslow as Welfare Comedian
- John Steadman as Welfare Drunk
- Faith Minton as Lady Bouncer
- Ben Powers as Welfare Black
- Carl Weintraub as Hotel Cop
- Lupe M. Ontiveros as Old Lady
Release
Television edit
The television edit of the film, in addition to being edited for content such as the removal of all sequences in which characters are seen smoking cannabis, contained many extended and additional scenes, and alternate dialogue, as well as a different music score.
The opening credits animated sequence was different from the theatrical cut, showing Cheech and Chong stealing their neighbor's car, which runs out of gas. It also features a theme song which didn't appear in the theatrical cut which removes Nick McLean’s co-credit as director of photography and replaces the theatrical’s “written by” credit for Cheech & Chong with a “screenplay by” credit (for Cheech & Chong) and adds a “story by” credit for Cheech & Chong and Francesca Turner.
When he's calling the police, the hotel receptionist's line "Look, I think they're Iranians!" was redubbed as "Look, I think they're communists!"[12] The extraterrestrials are then shown to be following Red in the hopes that he will lead them to "the diamond field"; after Red's duffel bag is retrieved, a different cutaway shot is shown depicting the inside of the bag as containing diamonds, not cannabis buds.[13] Before the music store scene, there is an additional shot of a spaceship and an additional scene featuring a street musician.[14] The music store scene is also extended, showing more of Red playing guitar and throwing guitars to the other customers. The scene where they get into Gloria’s car still shows the store owner follow them out, complaining about the damage they caused, omitting the part where Red and Chong give the store owner armfuls of marijuana to compensate for the damage. The omission is covered by another close up of Gloria, yet the owner is still shown standing at the curb holding the marijuana as they drive off, and omits the police’s arrival and subsequent arrest of the owner.[15] After it is revealed that "Chicken Charlie" is the father of Gloria, the woman Red, Chong and the prostitute hitched a ride with, when the prostitute recognizes him, there is an additional scene where the group has a dinner and uncomfortable conversation before they move into the living room, where Gloria sings the Jimmy Reed song "Baby What You Want Me to Do".[16] In the living room, instead of performing the dirty magic trick, Red instead suggests that they drive to The Comedy House. This edit removed Charlie's wife smoking cannabis in the car.[17] When Red performs the Mexico joke at The Comedy House, the line "donkey's balls" is redubbed as "donkey's tail".[18] When Chong gets on the stage, the sequence in which he repeats Red's magic trick of turning a glass "into a dick" is removed, and there is an alternate scene in which Chong hits the large female wrestler on the head to no effect; she does not break the glass.[19]
When Red and Chong are abducted by the extraterrestrials, additional dialogue is dubbed in, and there is an additional scene with Red and Chong on the space ship, where the extraterrestrials tell Red and Chong that they will teach them to "fly like Peter Pan" in order to retrieve diamonds for them.[20] When Chong is back on Earth talking to Cheech at the end, the dialogue is completely redubbed, removing the references to "space coke", and instead having Chong telling Cheech that the extraterrestrials taught him how to fly; we are still inexplicably shown the footage of Cheech rampaging through the wall of their house and the neighbor’s, Chong still following him carrying the beaker of space coke and the shot of Cheech blasting them through the roof (despite not being taught to fly yet). In the theatrical cut, this was a result of Cheech trying the space coke and the effect it had on him, but with the removal of the space coke references, this makes no sense. The edit ends with an extended animated sequence in which Cheech and Chong fly into space to join Red on the spaceship and an extraterrestrial superhero plays guitar before turning into a dragon, and the Cheech and Chong Teen Center and Playground sign is shown one final time before the credits roll, as we hear Red laughing and asking, "ya get it?"[21]
Home media
A novelization was released in 1980.
The film was released on Blu-ray in 2017, containing the theatrical cut, trailer, radio spots and an interview with Cheech Marin. It did not include the television cut of the film or any deleted scenes.[22]
Critical reception
Roger Ebert's review was negative, writing: "This movie is embarrassing. There's no invention in it, no imagination, no new comic vision, no ideas about what might be really funny -- instead of just dope-funny, something to laugh at if you're in the bag anyway."[23] Gene Siskel gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote that it was "much better" than Up in Smoke, "which isn't saying that much. It's just that its jokes come a little quicker and a few of them are funny even to the chemically unaltered viewer."[24] Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote that the film was "casual, slapdash and rude, and it's frequently hilarious in the way of some intense but harmless confrontation between eccentrics on a street corner."[25] Variety called the film "a laborious disappointment in which the freshness has vanished and the laughs come few and far between."[26]
References
- ^ Canby, Vincent (July 19, 1980). "Cheech and Chong's Next Movie (1980) CHEECH AND CHONG MAKE THEIR 'NEXT MOVIE'". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 19, 2013.
- ^ Cheech and Chong's Next Movie (TV edit) (MP4). Internet Archive. 1980. Event occurs at 01:00 to 03:13. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
- ^ Cheech and Chong's Next Movie (TV edit) (MP4). Internet Archive. 1980. Event occurs at 03:13 to 04:56. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
- ^ Cheech and Chong's Next Movie (TV edit) (MP4). Internet Archive. 1980. Event occurs at 08:28 to 09:45. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
- ^ Cheech and Chong's Next Movie (TV edit) (MP4). Internet Archive. 1980. Event occurs at 14:20. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
- ^ Cheech and Chong's Next Movie (TV edit) (MP4). Internet Archive. 1980. Event occurs at 19:41 to 20:26. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
- ^ Cheech and Chong's Next Movie (TV edit) (MP4). Internet Archive. 1980. Event occurs at 23:03 to 25:30. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
- ^ Marin, Cheech (1980). Cheech and Chong's Next Movie (TV edit) (MP4). Internet Archive. Event occurs at 28:18 to 28:27. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
- ^ Marin, Cheech (1980). Cheech and Chong's Next Movie (TV edit) (MP4). Internet Archive. Event occurs at 42:20. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
- ^ Cheech and Chong's Next Movie (TV edit) (MP4). Internet Archive. 1980. Event occurs at 43:02 to 44:06. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
- ^ Cheech and Chong's Next Movie (TV edit) (MP4). Internet Archive. 1980. Event occurs at 44:07 to 44:47. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
- ^ Reubens, Paul (1980). Cheech and Chong's Next Movie (TV edit) (MP4). Internet Archive. Event occurs at 50:04. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
- ^ Cheech and Chong's Next Movie (TV edit) (MP4). Internet Archive. 1980. Event occurs at 50:39 to 51:22. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
- ^ Cheech and Chong's Next Movie (TV edit) (MP4). Internet Archive. 1980. Event occurs at 59:19 to 59:43. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
- ^ Cheech and Chong's Next Movie (TV edit) (MP4). Internet Archive. 1980. Event occurs at 59:44 to 01:02:40. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
- ^ Cheech and Chong's Next Movie (TV edit) (MP4). Internet Archive. 1980. Event occurs at 01:06:57 to 01:08:05. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
- ^ Cheech and Chong's Next Movie (TV edit) (MP4). Internet Archive. 1980. Event occurs at 01:08:44 to 01:08:50. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
- ^ Cheech and Chong's Next Movie (TV edit) (MP4). Internet Archive. 1980. Event occurs at 01:12:38 to 01:13:40. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
- ^ Cheech and Chong's Next Movie (TV edit) (MP4). Internet Archive. 1980. Event occurs at 01:13:57 to 01:14:46. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
- ^ Cheech and Chong's Next Movie (TV edit) (MP4). Internet Archive. 1980. Event occurs at 01:27:17 to 01:30:20. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
- ^ Chong, Tommy (1980). Cheech and Chong's Next Movie (TV edit) (MP4). Internet Archive. Event occurs at 01:32:19 to 01:34:07. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
- ^ "REVIEW: "CHEECH AND CHOng's NEXT MOVIE" (1980); SHOUT! FACTORY BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION - Cinema Retro".
- ^ Mills, David (June 15, 1991). "Tommy Chong: Reefer Sadness". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
- ^ Siskel, Gene (July 21, 1980). "Cheech and Chong cultivate mix of corn and weed". Chicago Tribune. Section 2, p. 6.
- ^ Canby, Vincent (July 19, 1980). "Film: Cheech and Chong Make Their 'Next Movie'". The New York Times. 8.
- ^ "Film Reviews: Cheech And Chong's Next Movie". Variety. July 23, 1980. 18.