Up in Smoke

"It will make you feel VERY funny!"

1978 1h 26m EN

👍

6.6

SOLID

🥫

45%

ROTTEN

😬

METACRITIC

⭐

6.9

IMDB

★6.6TMDB · 654🥫45%Rotten Tomatoes●57Metacritic★6.9IMDB · 42,529

AdventureComedy

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

An unemployed pot-smoking slacker and amateur drummer, Anthony Stoner ditches his strict parents and hits the road, eventually meeting kindred spirit Pedro de Pacas. While the drug-ingesting duo is soon arrested for possession of marijuana, Anthony and Pedro get released on a technicality, allowing them to continue their many misadventures and ultimately compete in a rock band contest, where they perform the raucous tune "Earache My Eye."

“It will make you feel VERY funny!”

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Cast

Cheech Marin
Pedro
Tommy Chong
Man
Strother Martin
Mr. Stoner
Edie Adams
Tempest Stoner
Harold Fong
Chauffeur
Richard Novo
Richard
Jane Moder
Jail Bait
Pam Bille
Jail Bait

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Lou Adler
Writers: Tommy Chong, Cheech Marin
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

86 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

48 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Cheech & Chong Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Lou Adler, shot by Gene Polito. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Scott Conrad shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong and Strother Martin carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "It will make you feel VERY funny!".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0078446 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Lou Adler directs. Gene Polito behind the camera. Scott Conrad cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

186 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
248 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3Part of the "Cheech & Chong Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
4Directed by Lou Adler, shot by Gene Polito. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Editor Scott Conrad shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong and Strother Martin carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "It will make you feel VERY funny!".
8IMDB entry: tt0078446 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 11 themes, including "joint", "drug trafficking", "smoking", "ecstasy".
10Released under 11 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Gene Polito
Editing: Scott Conrad
Makeup / hair: Wes Dawn
Sound: John Wilkinson
Runtime: 86 min · 1h 26m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Box office: $41,590,893
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Up in Smoke (1978)
Rotten Tomatoes: 45% 🥫 Rotten
Metacritic: 57/100
IMDB rating: 6.9/10 · 42,529 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

1 win total

Part of

Cheech & Chong Collection

Cheech & Chong are a comedy duo consisting of Richard "Cheech" Marin and Tommy Chong, who found a wide audience in the 1970s and 1980s for their stand-up routines, which were based upon the hippie and free love era, and especially drug culture movements, most notably their love for cannabis.

Also by

Lou Adler

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains
1982 · ★ 6.3

Stills · wallpapers

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Filipe Manuel Neto2022-12-11
★ 1/10
A good example of how irresponsible and careless cinema can be when it wants to convey messages to the public. I have already said, in other reviews of other films, that I see cinema as a leisure experience and as a form of artistic expression. At its core, this is cinema. However, there are so many films that seek to indoctrinate and convey political or social messages that it is not easy for us to forget that the industrial and propaganda machine linked to the movies is perfect for the mass “brainwashing” of crowds. It's something I don't like and it's even dangerous, taking into account that it can be used for good or bad, depending on the message being conveyed. And the message that this film sends us is one of tremendous social irresponsibility! Released in 1978, at a time when American cinema still felt the strong influence of hippies and the ideals of a libertarian and counterculture Left, the film begins by revealing two very different characters (a poor Latino and a well-born and spoiled rich man) who unite in their love for drugs, and especially marijuana (or weed). The script is non-existent and underwritten: the characters limit themselves to an incessant and eager search for more and more drugs, ending up returning from Mexico with a van made of weed and leaving a trail of smoke and people accidentally stoned, and apparently very happy with that. The film is one of those films that Hollywood should be ashamed of: it is a great apology for the consumption, liberal and recreational, of a varied cocktail of drugs, which starts with weed and ends with acids, “speeds” and heroin. The amount of substances mentioned in the film is vast and the way in which the subject is approached should have led to legal actions and arrest warrants against the actors, producers, studio and director, in order to answer for this irresponsible and inconsequential movie. And if the reader finds that too drastic, I leave you the question: would it be reasonable or good that they had released a comedy that made a sympathetic or pleasant portrayal of Nazism, or the Holocaust? Yes, one thing has nothing to do with the other! But there are reasonable limits for everything, including comedy, and there are themes that are simply not meant to make people laugh. I don't mean by this to say that I think the film was instrumental in increasing drug use, or that all the people who saw it went out and bought some weed. But if we, as a society, start to allow certain reprehensible acts and behaviors to be seen in a careless way, this gradually becomes ingrained in people's minds. In addition to this issue of moral and social irresponsibility, the film also has a perfect bad taste humor: I've never seen a film where the characters spend so much time in bathrooms, or vomiting. If that's funny, I didn't see any joke, but maybe it's my mistake, after all, I wasn't born or live in a cave, and my parents gave me a good education. Technically, the only aspects worthy of mention are the vehicles, starting with the VW Beetle modified with Rolls-Royce parts and ending with the very green van that appears in the biggest slice of the film. Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong deserve the Golden Raspberry and are absolutely deplorable, as actors and as comedians. Personally, I am in favor of banning this film, on moral and educational grounds. However, it can even be seen if it is properly framed and accompanied by explanations about the danger of drug use. Lucky for us, there are lots of films with good messages about that, and yes, cannabis is a drug like any other.

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