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The credits list a fair number of Groundlings in the cast, which would explain the improvised structure and feel. Phil Hartman, Paul Reubens (and Pee-Wee Herman), Cassandra “Elvira” Peterson, Edie McClurg, and Rita Wilson all show up in minor supporting roles, and McClurg comes off the best, primarily because she is given the most to do. As affirming (and slight) as Up in Smoke is, Next Movie feels endless (at 95 minutes, it is the longest of Cheech & Chong’s features) and fairly unsavory, trying too hard to aim for the underground, when staying above ground might have yielded more.

Case Study #2: Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991)

Tagline: Once, they made history. Now, they are history.

By now, you’ve probably made the not inaccurate observation that, strictly speaking, neither of the Bill & Ted movies is a stoner comedy. As the only PG-rated entries in this week’s vehemently R-rated universe, Excellent Adventure and Bogus Journey are anomalies. They manage to be raucous without being crude, zany yet not filthy, and capture the eternal stoner’s laid-back zonkhood with barely a covert passing reference to recreational drugs/activities (the mere presence of George Carlin as the pair’s historical savior/guide aptly fills this role as does the “It’s a trip” secondary tagline for Bogus Journey.)





Excellent Adventure is fun, in an enduring “1980s American stupid comedy” kind of way (which is meant as a compliment, to distinguish from the non-enduring stupid comedies of that era). I position it up there with National Lampoon’s Vacation as a comedy that my inner 12-year-old self of now enjoys as much as my actual one did back in the day. (And believe me, there aren’t many of those. I think Weekend at Bernie’s may still qualify but I haven’t seen that in the last decade.) To point out an embarrassing truth, it was just this time that I realized Ted’s full appellation is Ted “Theodore” Logan. That’s a joke so slow-burning it took over 20 years to sink in! (In my defense, I always tended to briefly tune out after the “Esq.” of Bill S. Preston). I forget when I first saw it (it wasn’t in the theaters, though) but I do recall it popping up in high school choir class on a few “babysitting” occasions. Showing the same sci-fi high-concept attitude that Solomon later brought to his Men in Black comic and screenplay, the first Bill & Ted may not aspire to match but director Stephen Herek milks the scenario for all its worth and nails most of the laughs.

Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey is a trip, and then some. I enjoy it, if not more than the first film, then equally and for completely separate reasons. Rather than simply repeat the duo’s trek-through-history-inside-a-phone-booth time-machine antics, it finds room for: evil killer Bill & Ted lookalike robots from the future, excursions to Heaven, Hell, and a Home Depot-type store, brilliant scientist creatures from Mars, a battle of the bands (which, if anyone is keeping track, Primus loses), and a supporting role for Death, who, far from the imposing figure he cuts in Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, is actually a grumpy sore loser easily prone to suffering humiliating wedgies.

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