Stoners may seem to make for unlikely film heroes, but there are so many films out there that centre around cannabis smoking that it has established its own genre: the stoner movie. At the core of these films is usually a classic comic double act; two ordinary guys who just want to get high in peace but are constantly sidetracked by events beyond their power to control or ability to comprehend. Some of these great film stoners have been forgotten, others have gone down in movie history – here are five of the best partnerships in stoner movie history…
Cheech and Chong
Originally a stand up comedy double act, Cheech and Chong became the original stoner duo once they got into films. Cheech and Chong starred in ten stoner movies in total; their first, Up in Smoke (1978), established a template that many stoner films follow: the cannabis fuelled road trip, dangerous encounters with sadistic authority, accidental involvement in some kind of far reaching conspiracy, and the now staple scene where the villain of the piece (in this case an aggressive police officer) smokes cannabis with the two heroes near the end and discovers it’s not so bad after all.
Best Film: Up in Smoke (1978)
Bill and Ted
This one is controversial, as Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) don’t so much as touch a single cannabis seed, let alone a joint, during either of their family friendly films. But the evidence is suspicious; are they really that thick, or is their something else that is clouding their thoughts? Could their entire journey through time in their first film be one long cannabis fuelled fantasy? Is the sequel, Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, where they are killed, travel down to hell and play Twister with Death, the purest cinematic expression of cannabis paranoia ever written? Only the writers know for sure…
Best Film: Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)
Jesse and Chester
The two heroes in Dude, Where’s My Car, start with a simple mission to find their missing car after a heavy night out, and end up with involved in a quest to “save all of existence” after accidentally getting their hands on a powerful alien artefact (disguised as a Rubix’s cube). Jesse and Chester (played with affable dimness by Ashton Kutcher and Seann William Scott) are now stoner film icons, and the title of the film has entered pop culture as a stereotypical example of “stoner speak”.
Best Film: Dude, Where’s My Car? (2000)
Redman and Method Man
Only one film so far from Method Man and Redman, hip hop duo and cannabis fans turned stoner film stars (How High in 2001), but the movie is already regarded as a modern stoner movie classic, and a sequel is reported to be in the works.
Best Film: How High (2001)
Harold and Kumar
The young pretenders to the cannabis king crown, it is too early to tell whether Harold and Kumar, the Asian and Korean stars of two films to date, will find a place in stoner movie history or not. But their most recent film, Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay, can probably claim to be the first and only stoner movie satire about the War on Terror – quite an achievement by anyone’s reckoning!
Best Film: Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay (2008)
Robert Kane is the web editor of Sensible Seeds. Based in the UK, the company sells souvenir feminized cannabis seeds and informational books on cannabis to customers all over the world.
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