Nice Dreams (1981)

Absolutely brilliant

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

i never forget that scene when the narcothon helicopter is surveilling the maryjane tent/house, and they see these naked hotties on the beach. the hotties are waving at the helicopter, and there's a black cop in the helicopter. he makes comments like ,"take the chopper down old man,take it down,what are we doing up here!!!! and "i'm coming for you baby,here i come" and "ooo, you could beat me with a wet towel". really really funny scene among many! i also loved that scene when animal went to the hotel to beat up cheech and chong. that was funny when he peed in that jacuzzi with that family in it. the guy/father in the jacuzzi makes comments like "God he's dirty" and "he's stepping on my towel." classic.

These guys made a terrific movie in their first try. It was an accident, but what happened was a combination of things. There was cool self-reference and the perversion of the buddy road movie. It has a looseness to it that was new to "mainstream" movies in those days. Yes, part of the charm was that this was a mainstream movie and it treated dope smoking as a trivial amusement. It was in a way, the "Thin Man" of dope.Afterwards, these guys made nothing but drek, sort of a demonstration of the dullness that dope brings. These things aren't even watched any more by the doper crowd because market forces have moved to supply them with hipper, more supportive fare. So if you are considering watching this for almost any reason, you'll find better elsewhere.That is, except for the appearance of Timothy Leary. In those days, there really were distinct drug cultures. Pot was originally a Black Jazz thing, appropriated by kids. LSD was for the spiritually ambitious. Coke for bored celebrities, Heroin for the ghetto. Speed for the fringe biker crowd. Sects formed around these in the 70s and they became icons for different "life style" choices, though that silly term would be invented later.This movie was the first C&C that threw all drugs in the same barrel. Pot, coke and acid, all the same.That last makes its appearance here, ushered in by Leary. I'm convinced that the world would be a radically different place today if he weren't so inadequately suited for the role he adopted: prophet of synthesized enlightenment. By 1980, he was a joke and already exploiting his celebrity status to earn a living.Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

Cheech and Chong's first movie, Up in Smoke (1978), was the most successful and it set the scene for the five other films which were to follow. Nice Dreams (1981) is movie number three. Nice Dreams is a very good film for laid-back old hippies like me who enjoy romanticising the 70s. Gone are the flower-power days of the 60s and life seems to have degenerated into sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll, and this movie has its fair share of each.My favourite scene is at the Chinese restaurant where Chong is mistaken for Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. And then there is a welcome cameo appearance from the enigmatic LSD guru Dr Timothy Leary. One of my favourite supporting roles is the police sergeant who has the tongue of a lizard and believes "the only way to catch a doper is for you yourself to become a smoker." The quirky soundtrack and slapstick comedy helps to keep the movie moving along nicely...Even though Cheech and Chong sold millions of records in the 70s and had a major success with Up in Smoke, I would not call Nice Dreams a mainstream movie. I would suggest it is a movie with a cult following although I've never seen it on any "cult film" lists.If you like this movie you may also like "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and "Withnail and I".

Well I guess everyone should have at least one "head" movie in their collection. I liked it on VHS, not sure if I would shell out the bucks for a DVD edition, unless it had some deleted scenes or outtakes, which I am not sure are available. Stacy Keach pretty much lowered his standards to appear in this movie and yet he was perfect for the role of the drug unit commander. There were some classic scenes: Cheech lying on a ladder acting like he was swimming; a drug interdiction helicopter hovering a nude beach; a tortilla starting a fire right in front of an unsuspecting blind musician friend. These are all sight gags, but with a "pot" movie, what else do you expect? "Gone With The Wind"? Most of the movie is more stupid than funny, but at the time they were hilarious. The best scenes in the movie involve a restaurant haunted by "night" people. The only part of the movie I didn't care for was the ending, which was rather abrupt. All in all, a good escape to the 60s and 70s.