Half Baked (1998)

Great Film overall

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

I really wish Dave Chappelle still did comedy and did a few more movies. The man is talented but it's fair to say he did enough. At least he left a movie left a movie like Half Baked behind. Half-Baked is about a group of guys who never grew up from their marijuana smoking days. They live together with decent jobs and smoke pot on their free time. One of the group gets arrested in one of the strangest ways possible so the other three try to deal pot to raise enough money to pay bail. Hey, what did you expect?Despite the plot holes and silliness this is a decent comedy. Chappelle is a damn good comedian and he isn't over the top. The other two guys are extreme pot smokers and are extremely exaggerated. They are a bit annoying but they serve their purpose. Chappelle is a janitor in a science lab and the lab is doing tests of marijuana and naturally that is where Thurgood, Chappelle, gets the weed to sell. I guess you have to suspend your belief in reality. A janitor would never get away with stealing weed, but it's a movie about weed so I can let it pass.Let's take a second to talk about how the guy got arrested. He got one million dollar bail set because he accidentally killed a police horse. The sequence was very funny. A very high man feeding and interacting with a horse. It was funny but when the horse drops dead because it's a diabetic, I lost interest. I was personally not a fan of the reason because it was way to unrealistic. A comedy can be crazy and weird but it has to be believable, to a certain point. The scenes in prison were funny. I honestly did not expect the movie to show much time inside the prison. I expected it to resemble Doug from The Hangover where his character is completely forgotten but I'm glad he had some camera time. The standard prison stereotypes are there and it works well. The character himself was a little boring and dumb but I'm glad he was the one in prison. The other two are a bit obnoxious but they played their roles well. Thurgood is the obvious leader and at least he is relatable. He falls for a girl who is naturally against pot smoking. It creates a secondary story and its funny to a point. Predictable, but who cares. The big star of the movie was Killer. Killer was a dog one of them bought and this dog is a beast. I fell in love with this dog. Once I saw him I was afraid of the dog being a dumb addition, but I was wrong. The dog was hysterical and it even got high. Who wouldn't enjoy a high dog?Watching this movie high as a kite would probably be best, needless to say I did not but I should have. A movie like this is sure to have a sequence or three of them high as hell, and it did, and it was awesome. The movie opens with the four of them as kids being the first time they smoked. It was a great way to kick off the movie. High kids in a convenient store were funny, being they were 14. When they get the pot from the lab it's supposed to be the best weed ever and it sure looked like it. It made them fly. I didn't even care it was on the poorest green screen, it way hysterical.Overall, Half-Baked a movie about stoners and it made for stoners. I loved the humor and silly antics in this movie. Sure it was hard to believe and would never ever happen in real life but this is Hollywood. Even better, this is Dave Chappelle's movie. He is one of my favorite comedians of all time and he brought his A game to this movie. Was it a good movie? Not really but it was entertaining and I've seen worse comedies. I would call this a bad movie I liked so it's a guilty pleasure. I will give it an honest Sir Laughs A lot Award and a solid WillyT Recommendation. Watch this movie high. I can't because I would not in turn produce a quality review, but you can.

This film is one of my all time favorites. It's a real stand out comedy with damn good performances for what it is. most comedy today is pathetically predictable and just un-funny. From dismal family comedy flicks to the terrible ill amusing escapades of the date comedy. For me, their just way too formulaic. Is this story whole-heartedly original,no, not by far, but it's treatment is gloriously funny and pure escapist fun. The performances are better than you'd expect, giving off the feeling these guys are real close. Dave Chappelle is a riot,a real comedic genius. Guillermo Díaz is Scarface, Harland Willaims was terrific but the the performance I enjoyed almost even more than Chappelle's was that of Jim Breuer as Brian. If you've seen this movie then you know why I say this. Rachel True does as well as needed, but I found the tragic story of Killer by far more memorable (lol).And before i forget there are some very memorable cameos from Jon Stewart, Snoop Dogg, and Tommy Chong naturally. Each is just funny as hell. I don't believe you have to be a stoner to get all the jokes, but being a user will make it all the more hilarious. Overall, my rain reason for loving this film is that it casually, repeatedly and openly points out that marijuana isn't really something to fear, disgust or be ridiculously conservative of. A 'pothead' myself, I really don't recall ever feeling the urge to "suck a d*ck" for some marijuana, so that's saying some thing right?Take a hit, and Live life.

Viewed this movie on: January 13, 2010 Half Baked is a movie that really entertains you. Of course it's a dumb movie, and I think that to enjoy it, you need to switch your brain to off for the time this movie lasts. I viewed this film during a time when I had many problems: School-like and relationship problems, but let me tell you that one school night I watched this movie because my friend had lent it to me and I literally forgot all about these problems. Thankfully all those problems are solved now, but that is not the point. I read on an IMDb board that someone compared Half Baked to Pineapple Express, but that's something I don't understand because Half Baked is a much different movie than PE who has a bigger budget, thus better cinematography, leads, etc...The story is fairly original: Talks about Thurgood (Dave Chappelle), Brian (Jim Breuer) and Scarface (Guillermo Diaz) who are trying to sell Marijuana to bail their friend Kenny (Harland Davis) out of jail after ''Killing a cop'' (those who have seen the movie will understand). What follows is of course exaggerated situations, but these situations are utterly hilarious. The leads are all very likable, Dave Chappelle is the friendly guy, Jim Breuer as the man who is always high and Guillermo Diaz, as the guy who has a much different personality. Personally, Scarface was my favourite but I felt that Brian inherited most of the best lines. Anyways in a nutshell, you won't see time pass as you laugh yourself retarded while watching this movie (PS: That last part was inspired by a quote from the movie) :-)

HALF-BAKED is a film trying to mimic something along the lines of UP IN SMOKE in terms of incredulity and sophomorism, but fails to elicit the needed chuckle-factor it so ardently strives for. We even get a semi-cameo performance from Tommy Chong as a prison inmate known as "The Squirrel Master" but even his over-the-top antics couldn't save the film.I'm not a big Dave Chappelle fan so that's probably a factor in my choice to review this film negatively. I don't watch THE CHAPPELLE SHOW; I just can't stomach his lowbrow comedy. I am, however, a lover of Cheech and Chong's films of the late 70s and early 80s. They were the very personification of the drug culture spilling over from the 60s.The best "pot" movie of late that I can recall was THE BIG LEBOWSKI starring Jeff Bridges. More character piece than drug-culture talk, it had a very flawed and funny "Dude" at its core. Here with Half-Baked, the focus is muddled with side-jokes that often miss their marks.The story is that of four marijuana smokin' friends who live lives of idleness and degeneracy. One buzzed-out day they send Kenny (Harland Williams) out on a munchies run. But while out collecting groceries galore, Kenny accidentally feeds all of the food to a diabetic police horse standing outside the store. The horse (of course) keels over of hyperglycemia and promptly dies. Kenny is whisked off to prison and a very serious threat to his anal virginity looms large. Protected by "The Squirrel Master" for now, Kenny must get bailed out before his protector hits parole. His three free buddies Thurgood (Chappelle), Scarface (Guillermo Diaz) and Brian (Jim Breuer) must come up with a flood of funds to spring him. Instead of ingenuity, though, they devise a not-so-sophisticated plan of selling lots and lots of weed. The trouble is, though, that another local drug lord wants in on their scheme. Also, Thurgood has fallen for a beautiful woman who's father is in prison for selling dope, and Thurgood must decide between love and getting high.Homage to pot movies aside, the film simply isn't funny. There are a few lines that smack of excessive attempts to make the characters laughable ("I don't do drugs. I smoke pot.") and even they just don't hit the ol' funny bone.The biggest blessing is that the film is only 82 minutes, so you don't have to put up long with it regardless.