Half Baked (film)
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| Half Baked | |
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 Half Baked DVD cover |
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| Directed by | Tamra Davis |
| Produced by | Robert Simonds |
| Written by | Dave Chappelle Neal Brennan |
| Starring | Dave Chappelle Guillermo Díaz Jim Breuer Harland Williams Clarence Williams III Rachel True |
| Music by | Alf Clausen |
| Cinematography | Steven Bernstein |
| Editing by | Don Zimmerman |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | January 16, 1998 |
| Running time | 82 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $8 million (estimated) |
| IMDb profile | |
Half Baked is a 1998 comedy film starring Dave Chappelle, Jim Breuer, Harland Williams and Guillermo Díaz. The movie was directed by Tamra Davis, and co-written by star Dave Chappelle and Neal Brennan (Brennan was later a writer on Chappelle's Comedy Central show Chappelle's Show). Cameo appearances include Steven Wright, Tommy Chong, Janeane Garofalo, Willie Nelson, Tracy Morgan, Snoop Dogg, Jon Stewart, Stephen Baldwin and Bob Saget. Jerry Garcia was portrayed by actor David Bluestein, as Garcia had died three years before the film's release.
The film became a cult classic, heralded by many as Dave Chappelle's comic breakthrough. Chappelle's quote from the film, "I wanna talk to Samson!," has created a popular slang term for smoking marijuana with the term being used on J Dilla's track 'Crushin' (Yeeeeah!).
Half Baked hit U.S. theaters on January 16, 1998, grossing $7,722,540 in its opening weekend (#6; #1 at that weekend was Titanic), and grossed in total over $17,000,000. Given the movie's $3,000,000 budget, it can be considered a commercial success as well as a cult favorite. Despite its positive success in America, Half Baked was never shown in Australian cinemas, most likely because of the movie's indiscreet drug topic. The film however did make it to video and then eventually to television airings. Half Baked is #81 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies."
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[edit] Plot
Thurgood (Chappelle) and his friends Brian (Breuer) and Scarface (Diaz) are forced into selling medical marijuana stolen from the lab where Thurgood works as a "custodian" (janitor) in order to bail their friend Kenny (Williams) out of jail, after he accidentally killed a diabetic police horse by feeding it junk food. Their business, named Mr. Nice Guy in honor of their good-natured incarcerated friend, becomes immensely popular, even attracting famous clientele. However, Thurgood's personal life is ruined once his adamantly anti-drug girlfriend, ironically named Mary Jane Potman (Rachel True), discovers that he works for Mr. Nice Guy. Soon, all of their lives are in danger once Sampson Simpson, a local drug dealer, learns that Mr. Nice Guy is costing him business, including his former client rapper Sir Smoka Lot. He threatens to kill them. Brian also buys a pouch that is supposed to contain the ashes of Jerry Garcia with all the money they are making.
However, Thurgood tells police about a meeting he has with Sampson Simpson after they arrest him for stealing marijuana from the laboratory. The police agree to drop the charges if Thurgood wears a wire, that way they can get the proof they need to arrest the druglord. During the interview Simpson discovers that Thurgood is wearing a wire and is about to kill them when Brian throws the pouch he bought earlier on the ground. Jerry Garcia comes out and hits Simpson with a guitar, knocking him out, and police rush in and recover all of the drugs, and arrest Simpson after he wakes up. Thurgood, Brian, and Scarface's deal with the police and also get Kenny a pardon from jail. Thurgood gives up smoking and is able to win back Mary Jane.
[edit] Production
Much of Half Baked was shot in Toronto, Ontario. Some shooting locations included the R. C. Harris Water Treatment Plant and Yonge Street.
On Inside the Actors Studio in 2006, Chappelle lamented that his original Half Baked script was actually much better than the film turned out to be, specifically that he had intended for the film to be more adult-oriented, and thought that his script had been turned into "a weed movie for kids".
[edit] DVD features
In an alternate ending available on the "Fully Baked Edition" DVD release as a deleted scene, it is revealed that after Kenny returns home from jail, all of the roommates sit down to smoke from "Billy Bong Thorton," an act that was thwarted earlier in the movie ("No Scarface. No 'Billy Bong Thornton' without Kenny, that would not be right, man. Use 'Wesley Pipes'! Yeah.") due to Kenny still being in jail. This scene also implies that it is Thurgood's last time smoking.
The next scene is an extended version of the theatrical ending, in which Thurgood meets Mary Jane on the bridge, and after a short talk with his "joint" he throws it over the side of the bridge, then walks off with Mary Jane. In this version, he has a longer talk with his "joint," throws it off the side of the bridge, and slowly walks away with Mary Jane until they almost disappear on the horizon, but then Thurgood comes running back yelling, "Hold on, weed, I'm coming!" as he hops over the side of the bridge at the spot where he threw the joint over.
In the same alternate ending, it is also revealed that Jan may not really be "a big dyke" as she is caught on the couch with Steven Wright's the "guy on the couch" character, when Kenny and the roommates return home from bailing Kenny out of jail.
The "Fully Baked Edition" also includes a segment called "Five Minutes with the Guy on the Couch." The five minute clip depicts a stationary camera filming a man who resembles Steven Wright, as he sleeps on the couch. As clouds of smoke waft in and out of the scene, he turns over several times, farts, scratches his head, removes his socks, and at the end of the scene, he rolls over and falls off of the couch. This feature is reminiscent of the Yule Log, in which a stationary camera films a burning log in a fireplace which is intended for people who do not have a fireplace.
[edit] Satire and cultural references
- Half Baked jokes about the double meaning of the term pearl necklace. When Thurgood comes home to find his friends have spent some of the drug money, and Brian says, "Well, you said you gave Mary Jane a pearl necklace. How much did THAT cost?" and Thurgood replies, "Obviously you missed the point of that story, Brian."
- When Kenny goes to prison, the inmates chant "fish," parodying the scene in The Shawshank Redemption when Andy Dufresne first gets to prison.
- During the robbery scene, Scarface wears black clothing and paints his face in a fashion similar to that of the characters in the film Dead Presidents.
- When Brian is fired from his job, he "flips out" and asks "Who's comin' with me?" just as Tom Cruise does in the movie Jerry Maguire.
- Thurgood makes a comment to a scientist at his place of employment that his "grandfather was in the Tuskegee experiments." This is a reference to the infamous Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male where hundreds of poor black men were denied treatment of syphilis to study the effects of the disease.
- Chappelle parodied a scene from the movie on his own Chappelle's Show. The episode spoofs clips from several fictional movies by showing what would really happen in real life. The scene from the movie featured on the show is when Thurgood, Brian, and Scarface all find out that Kenny just got arrested and Thurgood mentions that they can steal medical marijuana from the lab that he works at to sell for Kenny's bail money. However, unlike in the movie—where the guys truly care about their friend Kenny and want to get him out of jail—Scarface says "Yo, Fuck Kenny, B!" and everybody then all laughs. The characters then suggest that Thurgood should steal some of the marijuana after all, albeit not to sell for Kenny's bail money but to smoke it themselves.
- The soap gag is parodied in the animated series The Boondocks.
[edit] External links
