I love David Gordon Green’s 2008 masterpiece “Pineapple Express,” which I own on DVD and have seen many times. While I was of course aware that it was deeply indebted to Cheech and Chong’s “Up in Smoke,” from 1978, I had never seen the earlier film, and when I set out to write this comparative essay I assumed “Up in Smoke” would be a largely unwatchable parade of dubious doobie jokes (sorry) that would fail to resonate with me. In this, I was only partially correct, which was a nice surprise. After forcing my husband to illegally download “Up in Smoke,” and then nixing his suggestion that I take notes, we began, but not before first stating our guesses as to how many genuine laughs the movie would provide. We both guessed zero. I am happy to report that this guess was a bit too conservative — there were actually something like two big laughs and three chuckles, which is pretty good for a 1978 drug comedy if you ask me.
In fact, it wasn’t so much the comedy that was interesting, in comparing these two films — “Pineapple Express” is just demonstrably a funnier and more skillfully-crafted film than “Up in Smoke,” although the latter does have its charms — but rather their very different depictions of two different eras in the business of selling drugs as consumer products, as well as their examinations of male friendship within the changing context of American consumer capitalism generally.
