Half Baked Movie Review

Really, how can you hate a movie with a flying dog?

The answer you can’t. You also can’t hate a movie that’s as funny and blissfully stupid as Half Baked, the 1998 pot comedy written by Dave Chappelle and Neal Brennan (the two guys behind Chappelle’s Show) and directed by Tamra Davis.

The plot focuses on three NYC pothead friends (Chappelle, Guillermo Diaz, and Jim Breuer), who turn to dealing drugs after their friend and roommate (Harland Williams) is arrested for accidentally killing a police horse. While the trio is selling pharmaceutical marijuana to raise the bail money, Chappelle has to hide the fact from his straight edge girlfriend (Rachel True).

The movie is helped by Brennan and Chappelle’s attempts to amuse you at any cost, regardless of how stupid or juvenile it may be. You have to admire that kind of effort, especially when it yields to such gems as Williams’ prison woes (“I can last 5… 6:30 p.m.”), the friends’ attempt to steal more marijuana (with Diaz looking like Larenz Tate from Dead Presidents), and TV dad Bob Saget’s admission to how he got cocaine.

Also in the movie’s favor is its short length — 85 minutes — which is just enough time before the pot humor loses its buzz, and lots of effective cameos (Jon Stewart, Willie Nelson, Snoop Dogg). A big debit against the movie is Breuer, who is just plain annoying as the hippie stoner. How did this guy last three seasons on Saturday Night Live?

Half Baked is bound to find a new audience with the massive popularity of Chappelle’s Show, and that’s good. Maybe Sir Smoke-a-Lot, the fidgety, pot-addled rapper played by Chappelle in the movie, can find a home on his show alongside Tyrone the Crackhead.

Howdy.