Cheech & Chong's Next Movie (1980)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1980
Running Time	90:23
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Thomas Chong
Studio Distributor	C & C Brown Prods Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Cheech Marin Thomas Chong
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$19.95	Music	Mark Davis Cheech Marin

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes, constantly
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes, you can't miss the Coke logo
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Cheech and Chong were a popular comedy team in the early 1980s, and Cheech And Chong's Next Movie is basically a collection of the two lads doing what they do best - smoking a ton of weed and getting into some absurd situations as a result. Next Movie basically runs like a slightly extended episode of The Comedy Company with a stoner theme, so if you're unable to enjoy low-brow humour, then this outing will probably not appeal to you. I must admit that I found myself laughing quite frequently during the first half-hour, but the laughs tended to slow down a little once the basic setup of the plot was over with.

    Cheech (Richard "Cheech" Marin) and Chong (Thomas Chong) are a pair of stoners who blunder through their lives without a care in the world. The house they share is covered in graffiti from neighbours who dislike them, and their ability to smoke pot is such that Chong will even attempt to light a rolled trumpet while he is in the midst of spilled petrol fumes. When one of Cheech's relatives (also played by Cheech Marin) needs to be picked up from a local hotel, however, he and Chong go on a ride around town, terrorising music stores while carrying enough marijuana to get locked up on numerous counts of possession with intent to distribute.

    I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that this is a brilliant film. The plot is wafer-thin, and the whole film rests on the shoulders of the titular characters as well as the actors who play them. Cameos by Paul Reubens, or Pee Wee Herman as he is better known, and a hilarious performance from a young Michael Winslow at 31:45, help keep some scenes afloat, but the last reel in particular is a bit of a struggle to get through. I have a funny feeling that if Nancy Reagan and the Just Say No campaign hadn't put an end to the Cheech and Chong team in the mid-1980s, changing public tastes would have done it not too long after. However, if you're into classic comedy, and don't mind something that probably appeals more to those in their mid-teens, then Cheech And Chong's Next Movie is for you.

Video

    This is a very good transfer considering that the material is about twenty-two years old, and an attempt to restore the picture has not been made.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, with a slight windowboxing at the sides which will be hidden by the overscan on CRT-based sets. This is close enough to the original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 so as to not matter, especially given that it appears the mattes have been opened slightly to accomplish this shape.

    This transfer is not the best example of how sharp the DVD medium can make a film look, although it is miles ahead of any other presentation I have seen the film in. Of course, the trade-off for this slightly soft picture is that there is little aliasing in it. The shadow detail is pretty average, and consistent with that of most films that were shot in this era. There is no low-level noise apparent in the darker portions of the picture.

    The colours in this transfer are also a bit aged in appearance, but there are no instances of composite artefacts or smearing.

    MPEG artefacts were not present in this transfer. Film-to-video artefacts were also few and far between, with just the occasional instance of lines and edges looking a little jagged. Film artefacts, however, are a bit of a nuisance in this transfer, with occasional large white marks, and frequent small white marks, appearing on the picture very often during the first two reels. A sizeable white film artefact was found in the lower right corner of the picture at 11:12, making the size of the artefacts an issue on top of their frequency.

    Somewhat disappointingly, no subtitles of any kind were provided with this transfer.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Unfortunately, my surprise and excitement at how good the video transfer looked was negated by how distinctly ordinary the audio transfer is.

    There is one soundtrack on this DVD: the original English dialogue in Dolby Digital 2.0 at the higher bitrate of 224 kilobits per second.

    The dialogue is generally easy to follow, but the rapid speech of Cheech Marin, as well as the occasional moment when Cheech and Chong are talking over the top of each other, gets in the way at times. There were no problems with audio sync. A low-frequency hiss can be heard during many of the quiet sections of this transfer, suggesting that the recording equipment used to create the original soundtrack was not up to snuff.

    The score music in this film is credited to Mark Davis, with some additional music provided by contemporary artists. Most of the music simply consists of guitars, bass, and drums punctuating the on-screen action, and it is not particularly engaging. The song Mexican Americans, performed by Cheech and Chong at 35:12, during Chapter 9, will have tears of laughter streaming out of your eyes.

    The surround channels were not used in this soundtrack.

    The subwoofer also had the night off.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Not a sodding thing, not even a commentary by Thomas Chong and/or Cheech Marin.

Menu

    The menu is static, with no audio of any kind. It is, however, 16x9 Enhanced.

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

    There does not appear to be a Region 1 version of this DVD currently available.

    Overall, I found Cheech And Chong's Next Movie to be a bit of light entertainment that could be used to pass a rather quiet evening, but I certainly would not recommend it to anyone who doesn't have a 1980s-relevant sense of humour. If you enjoyed Get Out Of My Room or Born In East L.A., then this effort will go down alright.

    The video transfer is good considering the age of the film.

    The audio transfer is rather average.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall