List Item: Watch all of the “1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die”
Progress: 707/1007
Title: Up In Smoke
Director: Lou Adler
Year: 1978
Country: USA
I’ve never really been a fan of stoner comedies. It’s one of those genres where I can hold my hands up and say that they really just aren’t for me. However, they are a recognised and large enough genre – so I completely get why Up In Smoke is on the 1001 list. I mean, this film was the progenitor of this sub-genre of comedy films – and was a massive success.
Thing is, I didn’t actually find Up In Smoke funny. Or particularly well made. As a film it feels like a piece of long-form improv-comedy that you might see in a comedy club, rather than something that was properly scripted and acted. It just lacks any sort of cohesion as it drifts along making variations on the theme of the same drug-related jokes.
For a film that doesn’t even make it to 90 minutes, it was a pretty hard watch that felt a lot longer. I honestly went into this thinking that I might find it funny and, for the first 10-15 minutes, I had some hope. However, this evaporated pretty quickly and I was left waiting for the credits to arrive – so I could switch it off, write this up and watch some anime.
Before I Kick 