Up in Smoke

Plot synopsis:
In California, jobless hippie and stoner Anthony "Man" Stoner (Chong) is kicked out of his house by his rich and classy father. He drives off in his fathers car, which breaks down, and Anthony is left stranded near a beach, left to sleep in a ditch over night with his belongings.The next morning, Chicano stoner Pedo De Pacas (Cheech) sets off from his Mexican-family-house in his lowrider car looking for love with errands to run. Pedro drives along the beach where he tries to pick up ladies, and sees Anthony with melons stuffed under his shirt. Assuming that Anthony is a large-breasted woman, Pedro drives his car around and tries to pick "her" up, only to be horrified when he discovers Anthony is just a guy looking for a ride.Feeling bad (and liking that Anthony likes his car), Pedro gives Anthony a ride, just missing being caught by the police. While driving, the 2 take a liking to each other being that they both like smoking marijuana. Pedro offers Anthony a small joint, while Anthony shows Pedro a huge joint, made out of dog feces (being that the dog ate Anthony's stash). The 2 smoke the joint and get incredibly high, followed by Pedro accidentally swallowing a lot of acid. The car crashes into a light pole, and the 2 are arrested and the car towed away. In a small courtroom trial, the 2 are being prosecuted when Anthony, still high, begs for water. Pedro grabs some of the judge's "water" for Anthony, only to have Anthony spit it out, revealing it to actually be vodka. With the judge taken away, Pedro and Anthony are let off free.The next morning, after Anthony meets (and argues) with Pedro's band (being that Pedro is a guitarist/singer and Anthony is a drummer), the 2 set off to score some weed. However, the town is dry being that many people are smoking pot these days. The 2 visit Pedro's cousin Strawberry, who is a retired war veteran who is a little messed up in the head and has a large "birth mark" on his face. Anthony stays in Strawberry's messy apartment while Pedro and Strawberry go off on a motorcycle to get weed. While in the apartment, Anthony meets Strawberry's roommate, a cokehead who throws a large drug party in the apartment. Meanwhile, Strawberry has a war flash and loses his mind and jumps off the motorcycle, sending Pedro crashing. When he crashes, he sees cops hiding outside the apartment, ready to bust in and arrest the druggies at the party. Pedro tries to warn Anthony via phone, which is bugged, and the party is busted. Pedro infiltrates the bust dressed like a re-po man, claiming he's there to reposses the stuff. The cops buy the story, and Pedro rescues Anthony.After that, the 2 visit Pedro's friends' place where the 2 get stoned, but not so much being that the weed is bad. At that point, immigration busts in, being that Pedro's friends calling immigration on themselves to get a free ride to a wedding in Mexico. Of course, Pedro and Anthony, despite their efforts to hide, get caught and deported to Tijuana as well.While in Tijuana, Pedro calls his uncle and gets the address of a upholestry shop and arranges to pick up a van to drive back to America. But after getting fast food over the address, the 2 arrive at the wrong place- an upholestry shop which is actually a marijuana plant in disguise. The factory actually makes materials out of solid and liquid marijuana, which is then smuggled across the border. The marijuana-made things made there are worth up to $9 million, and is heavily watched by police, led by Sargeant Stedanko. Pedro and Anthony show up to the factory, unaware of what it really is, and say they're there to pick up "the van". Rather than getting an actual van, the stoners get a huge green van, made from marijuana, top to bottom. From the steering wheel, the tires, the doors, the gas tank, to the very structure of the van itself, its all made of pure solid and liquid marijuana- and the guys have no idea they're smuggling it into America.The stoners drive their marijuana van to the border where they're stopped by police. Anthony is smoking a joint, which he throws out the window into the window of a car full of nuns. Pedro and Anthony are almost caught, when the police discover the joint in the nuns' car. The car is taken away and the nuns searched and arrested by Sgt. Stadenko and his police officers. Unaware of what they did, the hippies drive through the border back into America in their van, stopping at the border patrol station so Anthony can use the restroom. In the restroom, Anthony pees next to Stadenko and accidentally "shakes himself dry" on the sargeant's leg before leaving.
An angry chief leaves the bathroom to have the officers tell him that they were wrong about the nuns, its actually 2 hippies in a big green van. Realizing who Anthony must've been and the green van was completely ignored, Sgt. Stadenko and 3 officers get in the police car and set off on the roads after Pedro and Anthony.It isn't long before the cops get sight of the marijuana van being driven by a Chicano and a hippie. They speed up, only for Pedro to get view of 2 hitch-hiking young ladies. He swerves the van across the highway, causing for the police to accidentally shoot the tires off their own police car. Pedro and Anthony (who have no idea cops are pursuing them), pick up the hitch-hikers and drive off. Pedro and one of the hitch-hikers make out in the back while Anthony drives with the other hitch-hiker. Meanwhile, Stadenko has fixed the tires and has continued the search, having no idea where the stoners could've gone.Pedro and Anthony learn from the hitch-hikers that they are actually heading for a battle of the bands concert in Los Angeles, with the winners getting a record contract. Excited, Pedro and Anthony decide to go to the battle of the bands with the ladies and compete. But first, they need to stock up on some weed. The 4 stop the green van at a police station, where a stoner female cop goes to get the 2 ladies illegal marijuana. Pedro and Anthony use this time to play with the intercom and police transmitter, taunting Sgt. Stadenko over the radio. At this point, Stadenko is really upset and he and his cops show up at the station. Stadenko goes to use the bathroom, where Pedro is. Pedro too "shakes himself dry" upon Stadenko's leg as Anthony did earlier and leaves, making Stadenko angrier.Pedro and Anthony and the girls, acquired with weed, return to the marijuana-made van and head on to the road again to Los Angeles. However, unknown to the 4, the gas coming out of the van is pure marijuana smoke, getting anyone who inhales really high. This occurs at the police station where someone near the van gets high and a case of the munchies, ordering multiple hamburgers from a nearby fast-food stand. While they drive along the highway, the smoke from the van spreads out the exhaust pipe, getting all driving by with their windows down really high. At one point, a police officer on a motorcycle speeds after them, but inhales the smoke and gets high, and forgets what he's doing. Pedro, Anthony, and the women get away, but the high cop is found by Stadenko, and, while high, reveals where the marijuana van headed off to, and Stadenko follows after the van.The van soon arrives in Los Angeles to the Roxy Theater where the battle of the bands takes place. Pedro and Anthony head into the theater and enter the competition, leaving the ladies behind. While inside getting ready, Anthony isn't feeling good so he takes some pills given to him by the hitchhikers- which turns out to be acid. Anthony slowly gets high, and the smoke from the van enters the vents backstage and gets both Pedro and Anthony very high as they prepare to go on. As a result, Pedro dresses in a pink tutu and a Minnie Mouse bow, while Anthony dresses in a red quaalude.Meanwhile, outside, Stadenko and crew have found the theater, and try to get inside, but are shooed off by real police men, being that they've left their badges in the car and don't have tickets. The van is almost towed away and Stadenko tries to take the van, but is denied the right to have it taken away. A billion dollar bust, gone. Stadenko and the cops hang around the van waiting for Pedro and Anthony, but get high off the smoke, and Stadenko is soon turned into a huge stoner (as seen in the movie Cheech and Chong's Nice Dreams) as the van burns down into nothing but marijuana smoke, getting everyone in Los Angeles really high.Back in the theater, it is Pedro and Anthony's turn to go on. The van has nearly burned down and all the smoke entering the vents has gotten everyone in the theater high. The 2 go on stage, really high from the van smoke, and almost knock over the band equipment. The 2 then play their rock song "Earache My Eye" (an actual song on a Cheech and Chong record), about a gay boy trying to live his life. The song is a big smash (even though Pedro had just written it and sang it as he went on), and Pedro and Anthony win the contest and the record deal, although still very high.Days later, Pedro and Anthony are back in California from their whole drugged-up adventure, driving in Pedro's lowrider on the street next to the beach where they first met. They're happy, talking about their new record deal and all the possibilities that can happen, when they decide to smoke some hash. Anthony smokes some and hands it to Pedro, who accidentally drops it in his crotch. Pedro's crotch starts burning up and he freaks out as he and Anthony try to put it out. The car crashes as the hash starts burning up, and Pedro and Anthony (Cheech and Chong), their car, and the record contract are all left, well, up in smoke.

Tags: cult, humor, adult comedy

Review:
Of all the Cheech & Chong movies made, I think this one, their first, was their best.
First of the Cheech and Chong movies is probably the best overall, with the duo involved in a plot to drive a van constructed entirely of pot across the Mexican border into the US and featuring Cheech singing "Earache my Eye".
Pedro De Pacas (Cheech Marin) and Anthony "Man" Stoner (Tommy Chong) are a pair of slackers who wonder So Cal and Mexico looking for some weed, while the narcs look for any excuse to arrest them.
You just watch this sort of movie and think "The '70s...those were the good old days." Also, it was interesting seeing Strother Martin and Edie Adams as Chong's character's parents.
There are a lot of enjoyable characters, like Anthony Stoner, Strawberry, Harry, Stedenko, Jade East, The Ajax Lady and of course The Man and Pedro, you name it, the whole cast is excellent and there is great chemestry between the characters.
The end of this comic show is a comic show within, the guys as a rock band in possibly the best Cheech and Chong sequence of all their movies.
Anthony "Man" Stoner (Tommy Chong) is a rich kid who's still living the hippie life and enjoys pot.
This would be the first of several movies starring these two characters (or different variations of them).Anthony Stoner leaves his rich parents house after a falling out over getting a job.
You'll just have to find out for yourself when you watch UP IN SMOKE.A funny film that'll keep you laughing from beginning to end.
Basically all Up in Smoke movies are about watching other people getting high, actually all the drug comedies are about that.
The scene where they were smoking in a car in the beginning is still funny to me, though I watched it many times.
When this first came out in the theaters I passed on seeing it as it seemed like Cheech and Chong's time had come and went.
He would only direct one other film which is too bad because with his industry connections and reputation and his natural feel for talent and getting the best out of talent being a director worked very well for him as with the help of Cheech and Chong he turned out a very very funny movie with Up in Smoke.
The counter-culture stoner comedy duo take a simple theme for a story outline but the great comedic timing and sight gags and fast pacing and an their inventive approach at film making takes what should have been a low budget stoner comedy to the next level of lasting cinematic comedy.
Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong star in the first of series of funny movies from the duo.
The 1st and best of the Cheech and Chong series of movies, stars Cheech as a poor Latino-American with nothing much going on other than his low rider car.
Well, it is established Pedro "Cheech" De Pacas is in a weird band, but the entire movie really is about trying to score drugs, getting chased by cops and driving.
This was an appropriate movie for the 1970s where long hair, drugs, wild clothing, war protests and just all-around rebellion against authority was the cool thing to do, although that's been a part of society since Adam and Eve. In this film, we have the famous Hippie "brothers" of the era: Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong ("Cheech and Chong," as they were known back then) with a story strictly about getting stoned.Actually, there are some very funny scenes in here, such as these two clowns smoking the huge, huge joint while driving down the road.
That, and a couple of other scenes were funny but overall it's predictable in the negative aspects: language (Strother Martin uses the Lord's name in vain four times in the opening minute of the film); sleazy sex and nudity (I think "gratuitous" is the word) and the general irreverence of the period ('60s and '70s "counterculture").And...oh, yeah, the two boys finish every sentence with the word "man." Well, all I can say is the film had it's day, man, but is a bit dated by now, man!.
Back in 1978, the comedy duo Cheech and Chong, famous for their marijuana induced social commentary, arrived with UP IN SMOKE, one of the funniest films ever, that is, if you're a pothead.I'm not a pothead, but I definitely smoke some weed here and there, and after first watching UIS, all I wanted to do was rinse and repeat.
This is not the case with Cheech and Chong: these guys are baked all film long, and some of the pothead banter is just unforgettable stuff; unless of course you suffer from short term memory.There's a nice and bizarre cameo by Tom Skerritt as a Vietnam vet with a fondness for the green stuff, and Stacey Keach is hilarious as the detective hot on the duo's smoky trail.Awesome film for fans of cannabis; others may disagree..
Is it possible that Cheech and Chong can really be acting this well, or is this movie actually an improvised skit by two thoroughly baked comedians?
Two stoners unknowingly smuggle a van -- made entirely of marijuana -- from Mexico to Los Angeles, with incompetent Sgt. Stedenko on their trail.Although Cheech and Chong made several films together, they will probably always be best remembered for this one, their first.
when watching it for the first time you might feel like you have seen it before.Those into drug culture may appreciate the film more, but being a stoner is certainly not required to laugh at the antics of these two luckless losers..
This movie is entirely what the comedy of Cheech and Chong always was.
It's like a 'favorite album' you can always play and enjoy no matter how many times you've heard it.Not that Cheech & Chong are timeless on their own--their other stuff wears pretty thin, if you could sit through it the second time.
Viewed this film years ago and never forgot the great acting and comedy scenes between Cheech Marin,(Pedro) and Tommy Chang,(Anthony).
jUST as G00d as THAT Cheech & Chong movie UP in SMOKE!!!!
While of course there are other great drug films: Traffic (which deserved best picture), Boogie Nights, GoodFellas (which even though is my #1 is in many other genres), Half Baked, Blow, and any other Cheech and Chong movie other than The Corsican Brothers.
While of course some is exaggerated for comedy, C& C represent the average Joe who wants some dope and has trouble usually getting it around town (unlike say Half Baked, which was a little unrealistic in that they were hallucinating and always getting pot.Richard "Cheech" Marin and Thomas "Tommy" Chong in the 70's made many funny albums, and this was they're first movie.
In these minutes, the two (Cheech playing his character Pedro and Chong playing his character Man Stoner from the famous albums) meet by a hitch-hiking feat and when Chong pulls out a monster joint and the two smoke it (followed by Cheech eating so much acid he would be out for a month), the two become best friends.
Up in Smoke is a 1970s stoner comedy and Cheech & Chong's best known film.
It helps if you are stoned when you watch the movie.Tommy Chong appropriately plays a character called Anthony Stoner.
Stoner drives off and meets Pedro de Pacas (Cheech Marin) another dope smoker.Somehow they try to evade the arrests, get deported to Mexico and return back to the USA in a van entirely made out of marijuana as the cops try to to get hold of them.The duo end up in a concert battle of the bands as their van starts to smoke its fumes in the venue.There are some laughs, such as the stoned out sniffer dog on its back.
This movie features Cheech and Chong, well it's actually that they're playing characters with different names.
And it can be watched more than once, as it does have that kind of contents to its storyline and characters."Up in Smoke" is a fun and entertaining movie, and if you enjoy comedy and has not already seen this 1978 movie, shame on you!
While Reefer Madness was the first notable film to promote weed, it's this film that set the template for stoner films.Not really much of a plot here: Pedro De Pacas (Marin) meets up with rich-kid Anthony "Man" Stoner (Chong) and find out they both like getting high.
Their search for pot takes them all over Los Angeles and Tijuana in a wacky road-trip in a car unknowingly made out of grass.On their trip, they have to deal with Sgt. Sedenko (Stacy Keach), an over-zealous police officer trying to clean L.A. of druggies.The movie is filled with crazy situations: drug-filled parties, performances at a punk rock contest and a trip through a upholstery factory that is just a front for drug trafficking.
Crazy people, the kind you would expect in a film like this, are everywhere.Both Marin and Chong are very good in the film but Keach steals the show.
This movie unfolds itself while you watch Cheech and Chong try to have a good time.
It was the first Cheech & Chong film, which started a whole generation of wacky comedies and other films about pot.
Hands down, Up In Smoke is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen and by far is my favorite of the Cheech and Chong series.
And if you're into weed-sploitation, this is going to be some funny sh!t.Up In Smoke is the first of the Cheech and Chong films.
This cinematic debut from Cheech and Chong is considered by many to be the definitive stoner film.
Throughout film history, there have been plenty of films involving the use or talk of marijuana.Because of marijuana, there have been plenty of hilarious films such as Harold & Kumar showing the misadventures of people who smoke it.I believe that Cheech and Chong's Up In Smoke, was the first film to portray the positive use of marijuana.There have been other movies beforehand such as the 1936 "Reefer Madness".This is the first of a series of films which continued on into the 1980's.Before this film, they were comedians/musicians.Anyway, this movie is about two guys who try to smuggle a van made out of marijuana across the Mexican border while the narc cops led by Sgt Stedeko are hot on their trail.The duo gets into many misadventures during the film, while they must win the battle of the bands contest.Overall this is a great stoner film..
Also the production is excellent, this movie was filmed on a surprisingly huge budget (for example, there is a brief but very elaborate scene which shows us how an entire car is made from -- weed, man!).
And if you are to dumb to laugh well then you shouldn't be watching movies anyways.The team of Cheech & Chong will never been seen again, and I find that to be a great thing.COME ON ICE CREAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
This demented and hilarious film is best watched after, well, smoking something.The real star of the show however is Stacy Keach as an FBI agent who will stop at nothing to get his man or in this case men.
Everybody knows cheech and chong by now and they've smoked their way through several movies since the 70's.
this movie is the most popular stoner comedy of all time for a reason, and that is the chemistry between cheech marin and tommy chong on the screen.now i know they don't get along so well nowadays, but it is still great to see them back in their prime when they were one of the best comedy duos of all time.if you're an extremely straightedge person, this movie might not be for you, as there is a lot of drug use (obviously) and some nudity.
the first time i saw it, i was high and laughing so hard i thought i was gonna burst and had to wipe away the tears from my eyes, but also let me clear up some misconceptions among the weed naive crowd, first of all its impossible to smoke a joint that big and finish it, even the biggest potheads, those 2 included, would take a few hits and pass out, that much weed, looks like about an ounce, , is very expensive, up to $300 in some places,  and can last you for months even smoking every day, nobody would put it in a joint, which wastes weed rapidly, and waste it all at once,   and also its not cool to drive high, ive done it too many times, stupidly,  and its not fun, i havent done a bit of laughing, only constant fear of a dwi stop and hoping the whole time there are no cops between you and home, the fear of driving stoned and passing a cop set up right there, its happened to me (going 20 over the speed limit) and its scary as hell, is something you dont want to go through.
Even though Cheech and Chong have made over 10 films together, I still think that there first film, Up In Smoke, is their best.
What's especially funny is when Chong lights up his giant joint and smokes it with Cheech.
The film really gets good when Cheech and Chong get a van made out of pot to drive back to the States when they accidentally get deported.
There were several scenes that had me roaring with laughter.There is absolutely no plot so please go ahead and ignore the plot summary you may have seen on IMDb. This film is about two stoners who say "Man" 250 times in the movie and whose sole aim in life is to get high.This is the first and as I understand the best of the Cheech and Chong movies.
I think that Cheech and Chong Movies are good because they show the good that Latin people can be.
Legendary comedy duo Cheech & Chong's first and best cinematic outing is a hoot the entire time, just what this reviewer would recommend for those people who just want to turn off their brain for about an hour and a half and relax.
Up In Smoke is a highly funny movie, with Cheech Marin playing the poor Latin American and with Tommy Chong, as the Upper Middle Class self-inflicted drug addict.
Up In Smoke is a movie to warn us all, in the usual inept way that is the Cheech and Chong style, as to why they call "it" dope.
Well Cheech & Chong are to stoners what Jimi Hendrix is for Rock, this is what I know of the first stoner movie ever, and it's really great.
Even people who might not get into gratuitous drug films (such as some of C&C's later work) should find Up in Smoke a hilarious watch.
This is Cheech and Chongs first movie where they both drive across the Mexican border with a van completely made out of marijuana!
Sometimes I swear whoever wrote the "Cheech and Chong" movie scripts, was a stoner his or her self.
Basically slackers and getting nowhere musicians Pedro De Pacas (Richard 'Cheech' Marin) and Anthony 'Man' Stoner (Tommy Chong) happen to meet on a Californian highway, and instantly find a connection with their love of marijuana.
"SPOILER ALERT" This is the movie that started it all for the duo comedy act of Richard "Cheech" Marin and Thomas "Tommy" Chong.
Yeah, man!I'd say that Up In Smoke is probably the one and only one-note-joke movie out there that actually doesn't even try to pretend to be anything else, but just that - A One-Note-Joke.And as a one-note-joke (some of it funny, some of it not), Cheech & Chong sure got plenty of mileage out of being 2 of the biggest and most bungling dope-heads you're ever going to encounter in any blinding cloud of marijuana smoke.From smoking dog crap, to picking up jail-bait, to snorting Ajax, to being hotly pursued by the laughable Sargent Stedenko & his narcotics squad, Cheech & Chong (as those 2 bong-headed bozos, Pedro & Stoner) ultimately become a rock'n'roll sensation when they appear live on stage in "The Battle of the Bands" at the Roxy Theater.And, hey, man, you don't have to be stoned, man (but it might help), to enjoy this nearly plot-less movie.
But, hey, try to be at least in a fairly good frame of mind and don't expect anything Oscar-worthy from Up In Smoke and that way its disappointment-factor won't amount to too much.You know, this is actually a kinda tough movie to rate - The best way that I can describe Cheech & Chong is to say that they were the Beavis & Butthead of the late 1970s and Up In Smoke is certainly a prime example of their bad-ass brand of stoner-comedy that boasts no rivals..
Cheech and Chong were already insanely popular with their comedy record albums and were contracted to make a movie.
Cheech and Chong said that sounds funny, lets film it.
Watching this movie in 2010 is like a going into a time warp.
It is the best of the Cheech and Chong movies.
It is the best of the Cheech and Chong movies.
It is the best of the Cheech and Chong movies.
This movie is the best one of the Cheech and Chong series of movies, it is a shame that the duo never made a really good picture after this one..
By the time Cheech & Chong released 'Next Movie' one could sense that their humor was already starting to stale as it passed into a new decade.
This film is the best example of what Cheech & Chong were able to do in Hollywood at that time.
This is a funny as hell movie full of stoner's, pot jokes and awesomeness.
A definite watch and a great way to spend your time laughing at those two legends, Tommy Chong and Cheech Marin.8/10