Johnny Showtimes: CHEECH & CHONG'S LAST MOVIE

 by JB

Yeah, me and these two lovable stoners go waaaaaaaaaaaaaay back.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I am quite old, so I witnessed the beginning of Cheech and Chong’s meteoric comedy career firsthand. My older brother bought their first three albums, which I would listen to practically every time he left the house. These were forbidden fruit. These two guys joked about SMOKING MARIJUANA. I was a good Catholic boy. I was nine years old.

THE PLOT IN BRIEF: Tommy Chong and Richard “Cheech” Marin drive through the desert, reminiscing about their lives and career. An incredible treasure trove of historic footage is shown; their professional lives have been well documented. Where the filmic record fails, original animation steps in to tell the tale. Historic figures appear along the road, briefly join them in the car to reminisce and disappear again. Life is a journey. Do we have any cannabis gummies left?

THINGS I DID NOT KNOW BEFORE I SAW THIS FILM:

1. Before Tommy Chong began his comedy career, he was a professional musician in Canada. He cowrote the song “Does Your Mama Know About Me” for his band, Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers, in 1965. The song reached #29 on the Billboard charts and was later recorded by Diana Ross and the Supremes. Bobby Taylor later discovers the Jackson Five, becomes their record producer, moves to the United States, and breaks up his band. Tommy Chong needs to find another job.

2. “Cheech” is a family nickname given to baby Richard Marin by his uncle. “Chicharron” is a fried pork rind. "I came home from the hospital, I was like a couple of days old or something, my uncle came over and he looked in the crib and he said, 'Ay, parece un chicharrón.' Looks like a little chicharrón, you know?’

3. Cheech’s father was a Los Angeles police officer. The two never got along.

4. I love Cheech’s story about the first time he ever smoked marijuana. His first reaction was, “What else have they been lying to us about?”

Cheech and Chong’s “Dave” is one of the funniest comedy routines of all time. Dave, a paranoid drug dealer, arrives at a house. He knocks on the door. He suspects that he has been followed. He needs to get in. The man inside asks who he is. He responds, “Dave.” After a very long pause, the man inside shouts, “Dave’s not here!” Repeat endlessly, until you have created a worldview not dissimilar to that of Samuel Beckett. Except perhaps for Monty Python’s famous “Cheese Shop” sketch, I have found that Cheech and Chong’s “Dave” encapsulates perfectly the way that I view all of human experience. It made me happy that this new film acknowledges Dave; I won’t spoil it.

The duo’s musical talents served them well. They had a hit record in 1973 with “Basketball Jones,” which features George Harrison on lead guitar. Occasionally in the new film, Tommy picks up a guitar and plays. It’s delightful! At one point, Cheech sings an impromptu version of Buck Owen’s “Act Naturally.” More more more!

They cop to stealing material. Tommy Chong was a big fan of LA’s The Committee, and stole their celebrated “Dogs” sketch for the embryonic Cheech and Chong. Because Cheech and Chong toured and The Committee did not, people began to think that The Committee had stolen it from Cheech and Chong. And so it goes in the slam-bang, laugh-in-the-face-of-death world of professional comedy.

They are surprisingly honest about the events and bad feelings that led to their eventual break-up. Tommy directed most of their movies (they made about 10), and Cheech thought that gave Tommy too much control over their careers. Tommy felt that Cheech cared only about his own acting and his own half of the team. Cheech had a hit record on his own with “Born in East LA” in 1987, which he later turned into a hit film without Chong. The team split. While recounting these incidents in the new film, Cheech decides to “quit the film” and “get out of the car.” The pair get out of the picture car that has been being towed behind the camera car this whole time, and the filmmakers leave them in the desert. Cheech and Chong talk things out by the side of the road and reconcile. I know it’s a "bit" and it's a little forced, but I still found it quite moving.

The pace and off-handedness of this film will drive some viewers crazy. Cheech and Chong’s Last Movie is a slow and lazy two hours. If "form should match function" in the world of film, "slow and lazy" is the perfect pairing for Cheech and Chong. The movie resembles nothing short of a long, shambling, stoned conversation with two buddies you have wanted to catch up with for the longest time. I loved every minute of it.