Originally published: Sept. 5, 1980
Univeral’s Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie proves that in the 1980s the outrageous 1960s humor still exists, somewhere, and is still funny.
Neither Richard “Cheech” Marin nor Tommy Chong has outgrown the “head” image; instead they have adapted it to the ’80s.
The Cheech and Chong of the early ’70s was a parody of the hippies. Today, they portray an anachronism of two people out of place in this day and age.
A holdover from the hippy era is Cheech and Chong’s fixation on filth. With the media blaring bath and soap (“Keep yourself clean with—”; you know the type) commercials few of us even consider keeping used underclothes in the refrigerator so they won’t spoil.
The movie consists of sketches linked by a semblance of a plot. But instead of being boring, the film hits you with one comedy gag after another — Bang! Bang! Bang! It’s one of the few movies with almost no plot that is worth seeing.
Though Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie won’t be the comedy hit of the year, it does have many hilariously memorable moments. My favorite is the sequence where the two visit the welfare office. It’s chocked full of humorously bizarre scenes involving welfare cheats and the seemingly insane.
Next Movie marks the directorial debut of Tommy Chong.
Their first film, Cheech and Chong’s Up in Smoke, released in 1978 by Paramount Pictures, was mainly film adaptions of skits from their first five albums featuring Pedro (Cheech) and the Man (Chong). Next Movie presents new material (written by the duo) about the characters Cheech and Chong.
Cheech and Chong are about the only comedy team still making movies. They appear to have captured the exciting flavor of all the great comedy teams — Laurel and Hardy, Martin and Lewis, Abbott and Costello, and Hope and Crosby.
It’s good to see that two crazies can still get together and offer patrons a boisterous evening.