Half Baked
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| Half Baked | |
|---|---|
 Half Baked DVD cover |
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| Directed by | Tamra Davis |
| Produced by | Robert Simonds Dave Chappelle (uncredited) |
| Written by | Dave Chappelle Neal Brennan |
| Starring | Dave Chappelle Guillermo Díaz Jim Breuer Harland Williams |
| 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) |
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, Snoop Dogg, Jon Stewart, Stephen Baldwin and Bob Saget.
The film became a cult classic, heralded by many as Dave Chappelle's first comic breakthrough. Chappelle's quote from the film ("I wanna talk to Sampson!") has created a popular slang term for smoking marijuana.
Half Baked hit US 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 $8,000,000 budget, it can be considered a commercial success as well as a cult favorite.
The film was released on DVD in 1998.
This film is number 81 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies".
[edit] Plot
Thurgood (Chappelle) and his friends Brian (Breuer) and Scarface (Diaz) are forced into selling marijuana under the name "Mr. Nice Guy," in order to bail their friend Kenny (Williams) out of jail after he accidently killed the diabetic horse "Buttercup". Mr. Nice Guy becomes immensely popular, even attracting famous clientele. However, Thurgood's personal life is ruined once his adamantly anti-drug girlfriend, Mary Jane, discovers who Mr. Nice Guy really is. Soon, all of their lives are in danger once Samson Simpon, a local drug dealer, learns that Mr. Nice Guy is costing him business. Including rapper Sir Smokes Alot.
[edit] Trivia
- 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. In his words "They made a weed movie for kids!"
- Much of the movie was shot in Toronto, Ontario. Some shooting locations included the R.C. Harris Filtration Plant and Yonge Street.
- In the scene where Kenny is in jail talking to his reflection on a mirror so as to calm himself down and remind himself that he is neither a homosexual nor a fish, he calls himself a "Homo Erectus," when he is actually a Homo Sapiens. This was probably a joke.
- Despite the movie's positive success at the American Box-Office, 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.
- Jon Stewart's role as the enhancement smoker predated his success on The Daily Show and offers a comic contrast to his television news personality.
- Likewise, Bob Saget has a cameo as a recovering cocaine addict where he shocked many fans of Full House with his infamous "I used to suck dick for coke" line. Most fans of his sitcom work were not aware that Saget's standup act was just as raunchy, if not more so. The term "Bob Sageted," or simply "Bob Saget", has been a joke used on internet boards and rooms in reference to his character and the act of fellatio.
- The soap gag is parodied in the television series The Boondocks.
- 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.
- Dave Chappelle parodied a scene from the movie on his own Chappelle's Show. The episode features "clips" from several movies and shows what would have "really" happened. The scene from the movie featured on the show is when Thurgood, Brian, and Scarface all find out that Kenny just got arrested, and when Thurgood mentions that they can steal marijuana from the lab that he works at to sell and make Kenny's bail money (in the scene from the movie, this is their plan), the characters all laugh and one says "Yo, Fuck Kenny, B!" The characters then suggest that Thurgood should steal some of the marijuana after all, only to plan on smoking it later on that night without Kenny.
[edit] External links
