Although it has never been considered a legitimate genre, stoner films have been around longer than Britney Spears.
What exactly is a stoner Film? The word ’stoner’ pretty much sums it up. Stoner movies have one main theme and that is none other than marijuana, aka weed, aka pot, aka Mary Jane. If the entire film isn’t centered on cannabis, then there’s normally at least one character within the movie who smokes the herb constantly.
If one were to list all the stoner films that have been released over the years, the list would be endless. These four films are the best of the best in my opinion.
4.) Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982)
The film stars Sean Penn in his breakout role as Jeff Spicoli. Phoebe Cates, Judge Reinhold, Ray Waltson and Jennifer Jason Leigh make up the cast of this 1980s film centered around a group of high school students. Jeff Spicoli is the student that every teacher loves to hate. This surfer dude, who obviously shows up to class high everyday, surprisingly still has enough brain cells left to antagonize his teacher Mr. Hand (Ray Waltson).
Even though Penn is the star of the movie, Waltson steals the ’show’. When Waltson sees that his lesson plans aren’t getting through to his students, he questions their behavior. “What are you, people? On dope?” says Waltson to his ‘mannequin-like’ pupils. It is a simple question that has been embedded into cinematic movie quote history. Fast Times At Ridgemont High is your typical 80s movie; filled with teenage pregnancy, heartbreak, cheesy songs and new love.
3.) Friday (1995)
What do you get when you take two men, some cannabis and a porch? That’s right, you get the movie Friday. Friday stars Rapper/Actor Ice Cube, Chris Tucker, Nia Long and John Witherspoon.
Smokey (Cube) spends the day on his porch with his friend Craig smoking marijuana, drinking and commenting on their odd neighbors. The plot thickens when the dynamic duo (Smokey & Craig) have to come up with $200 to pay off a drug dealer for marijuana they smoked. After the first few minutes, a viewer might think that seeing two guys on a porch will be bland and boring. With Tucker’s comedic styling and an array of random occurrences, Friday will have you in stitches from laughter.
2.) Scary Movie (2000)
Only the warped minds of the Wayans Brothers could come up with a movie like this. This first installment of the Scary Movie series stars Marlon and Shawn Wayans, Anna Faris, Shannon Elizabeth and Cheri Oteri. Like any spoof, Scary Movie centers around poking fun at movies that have been released previously; I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream are the Wayans’ targets in this case. Cindy (Faris) and her six friends play a cat and mouse game with a serial killer who they thought they murdered last summer. There are multiple references to drugs through the course of the movie. From Marlon Wayans’ (Shorty) first appearance in a marijuana smoke filled car, to Cindy’s father, an obvious drug dealer, leaving her a stash before his “business trip”.
At one point we even see Shorty getting stoned and rapping with the masked killer until he too reaches his demise. Scary Movie really doesn’t have a plot, but most spoofs never do. There are more twists and turns in this movie than a roller coaster. Most of the jokes and events will leave you going “What?”, while other jokes will make you laugh until you pee.
1.) Dude, Where’s My Car? (2000)
Even if the characters in this movie hadn’t been stoned on some narcotic, the plot line makes you think the writers certainly had a few puffs. The movie starts out normal and then somewhere along the lines it transforms into a mix between SpaceBalls and Austin Powers. Dude Where’s My Car? stars Ashton Kutcher, Seann William Scott, Jennifer Garner and Marla Sokoloff.
After a night of partying, Jesse (Kutcher) and Chester (Scott) wake up to find Jesse’s car is missing. Instead of sitting down and retracing their steps, Kutcher and Scott embark on a never ending quest to remember what happened the night before. Along the way they encounter people from outer space, hot chicks, the police and a very powerful rubix cube. Dude Where’s My Car? is the epitome of all stoner movies. This conclusion isn’t drawn because they smoked cannabis throughout the film, but because you’d have to be stoned out of your mind in order to understand it!
So if you’re in the mood to get high, do it the legal way and get high from laughter with these stoner films.
