The Top 10 Stoner Movies Of All Time

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ in Culture, Products
Thursday, February 25, 2010 at 5:22 pm
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Up In Smoke
​The pot flick has practically become a genre unto itself. Stoner movies, expressly designed for enjoyment under herbally enhanced conditions, should have their own aisle at Blockbuster.

While we're waiting for that to happen, though, let's take a moment to bask in the euphoric glow of accomplishment. Cannabis cinema has established a track record of success and marketability much like the herb itself.

Given the passionate loyalty potheads feel towards their very favorite stoner movies, I'd have to be ape-shit crazy to put myself in the line of fire, subjecting myself to the ire, the scorn and the second-guessing of my blunted but opinionated brethren.

So if you think I'm high enough to even try that... OK, OK. Good point.

Here are my Top 10.


(Got any suggestions/additions? Put them in the comments below. Who says we aren't crazy enough to make another list?!)


10. Reefer Madness [1936]


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​This overwrought, horribly written, atrociously acted cautionary tale from 1936 did a lot of harm in its day.

Some even blame it for the passage, the following year, of the Marihuana Tax Act, the first national anti-cannabis law in the United States.

It's as if the sensationalistic William Randolph Hearst-style "yellow journalism" has been lifted right off the page and brought to life on the screen, where it's awesomely awful stupidity is only magnified.

Don't forget to indulge in a generous helping of "drug-crazed abandon" before you subject yourself to this steaming pile of trash, so you can have your giggles at the hackneyed "youthful marijuana victims."

Yes, the main thing it's good for these days -- and hell, for at least the past 40 years -- is unintentional comedy.

How on Earth did they ever manage to get it this wrong?


9. Humboldt County [2008]


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www.humboldtcountymovie.com

​A disillusioned and frustrated medical student (played by Jeremy Strong) finds himself stranded in the Emerald Triangle for the summer in a rural community of Northern California pot farmers.

Not unpredictably, a voyage of self-discovery ensues -- punctuated, of course, by inter-farmer rivalries, law enforcement raids on the fields, and bountiful Northern California hippie weirdness.

Humboldt County got mixed reviews, but the picture gets major bonus points for casting crazy-eyed smokin' hot pot hottie Fairuza Balk as "Bogart," (get it?) the female lead.

For Fairuza, all shortcomings are forgiven.

Not only is she sexy, beautiful, and talented, but Miss Balk is also a bonafide, real-life cannabis activist, appearing at (and even hosting) benefits for the Marijuana Policy Project and other good organizations.



8. The Big Lebowski [1998]


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​This Coen Brothers classic features the immortal performance of Jeff Bridges as Dude, whose essential Dudeness has become the stuff of stoner legend --  in other words, something towards which we all can aspire, man.

You may be of a quibbling, analytical bent and are thus thinking, "But I'm not sure Lebowski is really a pot movie at all."

To that, my intellectual friend, I respond: "The Dude Abides."

The Big Lebowski is so shot through with Dude-ism, stoned existentialism and high humor, it's practically a consciousness altering drug even without the weed scenes -- and yeah, there are definitely some of those.

For those fortunate cinemaphiles who have figured out that Steve Buscemi may well be God, yes, he's in Lebowski, and yes, he's up to his usual standards.

Be advised that watching this movie may instill within you the sudden and irrational desire to put on your very sloppiest clothes and go bowling.


7. Half Baked [1998]


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​Stoner stereotypes shouldn't still be this funny -- but it's almost impossible not to laugh at the clueless potheads who populate Half Baked.

Dave Chappelle's comedy breakthrough grabbed that brass ring of stoner movies: Creating a whole new term for smoking pot.

Chappelle's quote from the film, "I wanna talk to Samson!" created a popular slang term for getting high, appearing (among other places) on J Dilla's bumpin' track "Crushin' (Yeeeeah!)".

Thurgood (Chappelle) and his friends Brian (Jim Breuer) and Scarface (Guillermo Diaz) sell marijuana stolen from the lab where Thurgood works as a janitor in order to bail their friend Kenny (Harland Williams) out of jail, after he accidentally kills a horse by feeding it junk food.

Soon, all of their lives are in danger when local drug lord Samson Simpson finds out our heroes are costing him business, including his former client, rapper Sir Smokes Alot.

Just fast forward through the wimp-ass ending where Thurgood gives up smoking pot in order to win back his girlfriend Mary Jane. (Chappelle reportedly complained after the movie was completed, saying that studio re-writes had turned what was originally a much better movie into "a pot movie for kids.")

There are plenty of cameos not to miss including Jon Stewart, Steven Wright, weed-hating Stephen Baldwin, Bob Saget, Snoop Dogg, Willie Nelson, and the immortal Tommy Chong.


6. Dazed and Confused [1993]


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​Dazed and Confused is writer/director Richard Linklater's quintessential movie about coming of age high in the 1970s.

The film was a career-maker for Matthew McConaughey as David Wooderson, the has-been-at-20 ex-football star who likes high school girls "because I get older, but they stay the same age."

Also unforgettable was Rory Cochrane in his convincing (method acting?) portrayal of uber-stoner Ron Slater, whose (I'm guessing) ad-libbed weed-induced insights on such subjects as the hipness of Martha Washington were "high" points of the film.

"Behind every good man there is a woman, and that woman was Martha Washington, man, and everyday George would come home, she would have a big fat bowl waiting for him, man, when he come in the door, man, she was a hip, hip, hip lady, man." ~ Ron Slater

Keep your eyes open for the delectable Milla Jovovich and also for future gossip rag fave Ben Affleck, who at the time had never boinked Jennifer Aniston, and wasn't yet the boffo box office megastar he is today. (Click on the link below to see the Top 5.)



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