Blu-ray Review: Up in Smoke: 40th Anniversary Edition

By John Corrado

Lou Adler’s classic 1978 stoner comedy Up in Smoke is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, and the film is being released on Blu-ray for the first time in honour of this milestone anniversary.

The film of course stars Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong as a pair of stoners who meet on the road and instantly hit it off over a gigantic joint. The rambling plot follows them as they end up driving a van made of weed across the Mexican border, trying to get to a battle of the bands in Los Angeles, with the police hot on their trail.

The first feature film written by Cheech & Chong, who had already gained an audience for the series of comedy albums that they had released throughout the 1970s, Up in Smoke was shot in a month on a low budget and become a big hit at the box office, despite not being that well received by the majority of critics at the time.  The film has long since been reevaluated as a cultural touchstone of its time, and understandably so.  It’s been years since I had seen it, so I was probably a little too young the first time I watched it, but the film itself still holds up quite well and it remains a lot of fun to watch.

This is a definitive classic in terms of stoner comedies, playing with the same sort of hazy assemblage of a plot, which is strung along by a couple of drugged out characters who just go with the flow through a series of interconnected set-pieces, that has become a staple of the genre.  The film not only sparked multiple sequels, but also paved the way for a whole multitude of other stoner comedies that came in its wake.  It’s become iconic for good reason, and the Blu-ray presentation offers a marked uptick in quality from the original DVD release, for fans who want to upgrade their copies of the film.

The Blu-ray also includes a commentary track by Lou Adler and Cheech Marin, the brand new featurette How Pedro Met the Man: Up in Smoke at 40 which features interviews with Adler, Marin and Tommy Chong reminiscing about their early career, making the film, and when they first tried marijuana, as well as a selection of archival bonus features from 2007.  They include deleted scenes, the featurette Lighting It Up: A Look Back At Up in Smoke, the animated music video “Earache My Eye,” a supercut of the characters saying “man” entitled Cheech & Chong’s “The Man Song,” as well as a pair of vintage radio ads and the film’s theatrical trailer.

Up in Smoke: 40th Anniversary Edition is a Paramount Home Media Distribution release.  It’s 85 minutes and rated 18A.