Top 5 Cinematic Stoner Duos

Stoners are rarely lone wolves. Getting high seems to be a group activity, with participants eagerly seeking partners in crime. The movies are filled with great pairs of pot smokers, bonded over their love of the herb. They come in all colors, from all walks of life, and they teach us what friendship means, however dysfunctional and co-dependent it may be.

5. HAROLD AND KUMAR

Harold and Kumar show us that stoners aren't always uneducated ne'er-do-wells . They're smart, college educated, a bit nerdy, and have opportunities in life beyond other stoner duos. Their pot smoking also makes them unique among the demographics they portray. It teaches them to shatter the mold, and do what makes them happy instead of doing what is expected of most young professional Asian and Indian Americans. They also certainly have the best credit scores, SAT scores, and GPAs of any other pot smoking pairs.


4. CRAIG AND SMOKEY

Why go to a beach resort or a snazzy spa when you could just chill on the stoop with Craig and Smokey, and smoke a blunt? Sounds relaxing. Smokey and Craig have great banter to entertain, and to witness the events of any given Friday would be priceless. Ice Cube has recently said he wants to do a fourth, "Last Friday," but Chris Tucker won't come aboard. Please Mr. Tucker, please reprise your role.



3. JAY AND SILENT BOB

Jay and Silent Bob are the epitome of delinquent burn out stoners, and we love them for it. They spend their days selling weed to teenagers in front of a convenience store in a shitty part of New Jersey, but they are lovable nonetheless, and their bungling hijinks entertain the masses. Kevin Smith's trademark characters are quite prolific across movies, television, comic books, and even have action figures complete with bong and baggie of weed for accessories. They speak to the little burn out in all of us, reminding us that there for the grace of God go I, but if we did, we'd hope to be as fun as these two chuckleheads.


2. SAUL AND DALE


Saul and Dale, the main characters from Pineapple Express, start their relationship as simple dealer and customer, but are thrust together through circumstance, and form a bond that will never be broken. The two characters complement and contrast each other, amid a violent, chaotic situation,
but above all, they do really stony things. This results in one of the funniest comedies in the last decade, and certainly has one lesson to teach: your dealer can be your best friend, in more ways than one.


1. CHEECH AND CHONG

These guys pretty much invented the archetypal stoner duo. Since the release of Up in Smoke, in 1978, their impact on pot culture is undeniable, and they have become venerated as saints in the world of weed. Any self-proclaimed stoner who hasn't seen at least one of their movies needs to have their card revoked.They set the standard for what stoner duos could and should be. They're silly characters who are smartly written, and appeal to smokers and non-smokers alike.

Top 5 Evil Movie Corporations

The movies are filled with corporate bad guys, and evil companies. They ruthlessly pursue the almighty dollar, and will exploit, mislead, and even kill those who stand in their way.



5. CYBERDYNE SYSTEMS CORP. FROM "TERMINATOR"

Cyberdyne creates Skynet, and inadvertently causes judgement day, and a full scale war between humans and machines. Granted they didn't intend for that to happen, but they build super computer processing units ready made to go into killing machines. What did they think was going to happen?



4. INGEN FROM "JURASSIC PARK"

"We Make the Future" is InGen's corporate slogan. If you hope for a future where you're grandmother is eaten by Velociraptors, then buy stock in InGen. The corporation's work, though angering to Bible thumpers and animal rights activists, is pretty cool. Dinosaurs are awesome, and they just want to build zoos and theme parks, and make children happy. So what's the big deal? Well when you're business involves morally ambiguous cloning of a T-Rex, that ends up wreaking havoc in San Diego, you're a bunch of dicks.

3.THE WEYLAND-YUTANI CORP. FROM "ALIEN"

Weyland-Yutani, referred to mostly in the films simply as "The Corporation," specializes in terraforming alien planets, and colonizing other worlds to essentially strip-mine them of their resources. They must also have a military/defense division, because they have squads of space marines on the payroll, and when they discover a parasitic, sharp-clawed, acid-blooded alien, they think, "how can we make money off of that?"

2. UMBRELLA CORP. FROM "RESIDENT EVIL"

Umbrella Corp. is a company bent on world domination, and they do this by creating zombie viruses, and genetic monsters in order to decimate the world's population, and rebuild it in their image. Ironic considering slogans like, "Umbrella: Sheltering Your Family," and, "Our Business is Life Itself." Their intentions, actions and tactics are reminisce of Nazi Germany, and if you're inspired by the Third Reich, you're pretty evil.



1. OMNI CONSUMER PRODUCTS FROM "ROBOCOP"

O.C.P. doesn't want to dominate the world, only an American city, but more so than any other movie corporation, they are motivated by simple greed. Everything they do, from engineering a police strike, to funding criminals, is in the pursuit of profits. They basically want to foreclose on the city of Detroit, level it, and build their own company town that they control, and profit from. To do this, they use gestapo tactics, political manipulation, and bring an honest cop back from the dead, only to do their best to strip him of his humanity. Though O.C.P. may not be as crazy and deranged as others, and they only have their sights on Detroit, the fact that they're motivated by sane and sober greed, and they'll do whatever it takes to turn a profit makes them the most evil in the corporate sense
.

Top 5 L.A. Movies

These films celebrate the greatest city in the world: Los Angeles. These stories can take place nowhere else, and the city itself becomes a sort of character.

5. MI VIDA LOCA

Mi Vida Loca is especially noteworthy for showing the neighborhood of Echo Park in the early 90s, when it was one of the most violent gang areas in the city. Echo Park has since been fully gentrified, and if you go there today, you're more likely to find bearded hipsters than the characters in this movie.

The acting isn't great, due in large part to the casting of new unknown actors, and actual neighborhood gang members, but Salma Hayek, Danny Trejo, and Jason Lee are all seen in early film roles.

The film honestly and poignantly portrays gang life, and L.A. Chicano culture, especially from the female perspective.






4. SUNSET BLVD. 

 Arguably the best film from legendary director Billy Wilder, pays tribute to two eras of Hollywood: the studio factory system of the 50s, and the crumbling bygone silent era of the 20s.

The film begins with Bill Holden's character floating dead in a swimming pool, and narrating from beyond the grave, he tells the story of his death at the hands of Norma Desmond, a deranged, obsessive fading silent star played masterfully by Gloria Swanson.

The film received eleven Oscar nominations, and won three: screenplay, art direction, and music.



3. BOOGIE NIGHTS

Boogie Nights is a film that, along with thousands of porno movies, wouldn't exist without the San Fernando Valley. It's an area rarely shown, and even more rarely celebrated in films other than those of P.T. Anderson.

The film helped launch the careers of many great actors, including Mark Wahlberg, John C. Reilly, and Philip Seymour Hoffman, as well as gave a resurgence to aging veteran Burt Reynolds.

Anderson himself was launched into the forefront of filmmakers with this, only his second feature, and has since become one of the distinct voices in cinema.

Boogie Nights received three Oscar nominations, including one for Reynolds, but didn't win any awards.



2. CHINATOWN

One of the most important figures in the history of Los Angeles is William Mulholland, the water superintendent who brought water from the Sierras to a thirsty city.

Though Mulholland isn't a direct character in the film, Noah Cross, and Hollis Mulwray both exhibit traits of the man who made the desert bloom. The film's plot itself has a great deal to do with the siphoning of water from farmlands for the growing city, and the hostilities that occurred, which is largely historically accurate.

Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, and John Huston highlight an amazing cast, which includes an appearance b y director Roman Polanski as a smarmy hoodlum.

Screenwriter Robert Town received the only win for eleven Oscar nominations, but is #85 on imdb.com's Top 250, and is # 21 on the AFI's Top 100 films of all time.

1. L.A. CONFIDENTIAL

L.A. Confidential is a thorough portrait of 1950s Los Angeles. It shows the city to be a brutal, corrupt place, but also a city of angels and heroes.

The acting is top-notch, with performances from Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe, Danny Devito, Kevin Spacey, and Kim Basinger in an Oscar winning role.

The film is masterfully adapted from James Ellroy's incredibly dense novel, garnering L.A. Confidential an adapted screenplay Oscar.

There were only two wins for L.A. Confidential, but it was nominated for another seven Oscars, including best picture, and best director for Curtis Hanson.

Top 5 Fictitious Movie Drugs

Movies, especially those set in the future, have given us a prophetic visions and what-if scenarios of what the future of recreational narcotics could be. These are the drugs our grandchildren might be skipping school to do behind a futuristic 7-11, or take at a rave on the moon. They have strange effects not seen in present drugs. They have high tech delivery systems that make a line of coke and a straw look primitive, and they impact societies in big ways.

5. "NEUROIN" FROM MINORITY REPORT

In Steven Spielberg's film Minority Report, Neuroin users, such as Washington D.C. Precrime officer John Anderton, played by Tom Cruise, administer the drug through a fancy looking plastic inhaler. The effects are like that of a painkiller or opiate, causing euphoria and numbness.

An interesting result of Neuroin's stranglehold on the inner-city is babies born addicted to the narcotic. If the child doesn't die from withdrawal, it has a good chance of developing telepathy that can infallibly predict murders in a city wide radius, making them a valuable crime prevention tool. Spielberg, what are you trying to say by making your police officer protagonist a drug addict, and his drug of choice resulting in super-human abilities?  


4. "SUBSTANCE D" FROM A SCANNER DARKLY
Substance D, from Richard Linklater's rotoscope animated A Scanner Darkly, comes in the form of a tried and true delivery system, the little red pill. It causes vivid hallucinations, and euphoria, and is also referred to as Substance Death, or Slow Death, as a result of the potentially lethal side effects. Prolonged use severs the link between the two hemispheres of the user's brain, often resulting in two distinct, mutually unaware personalities occupying the same brain.

Bob Arctor, played by Keanu Reeves, is an undercover narcotics agent who becomes addicted to Substance D, while posing as an addict in Orange County, an area ravaged by the D.  Bob eventually becomes two different personalities, one a cop, the other a criminal, but he's checked into rehab before any more damage is done.

Philip K. Dick, who wrote the novel the movie is based on, intended the story to be a warning about succumbing to drug abuse. He ends the book with a list of friends and loved ones who had died or had severe debilitating conditions as a result of drugs. Linklater ends the film with the same list.    


3. "SLO-MO" FROM DREDD

Created for the movie Dredd, Slo-Mo is taken by drawing a hit off a weird looking inhaler with some murky brown liquid in it. The user's senses become so acute that their perception of time slows down to 1% of it's normal speed. This causes everything to feel like it's running in slow motion, hence the name.

The camera effect when a person is on Slo-Mo is really fun, and lends a lot to look and feel of the film. Everything is vivid, saturated in light, and slowed down so every detail can be seen.

In the film, Slo-Mo has become an epidemic in the super ghettos, and high-rise slums of Megacity One. Along with his new psychic partner, Judge Dredd, in a Stallone-topping performance by Karl Urban, is assigned a murder case in the 200 story Peach Trees tower. They become trapped in the building, and the murderer, Slo-Mo kingpin Madeline Madrigal, or Ma-Ma, places a bounty on their heads. They must then fight their way out of peril, with scores of dangerous gangsters on every floor, with the best action being the fight scenes in Slo-Mo vision. The violence seems far more brutal when it's slowed down, and bathed in light.  


2. "SPICE" FROM DUNE 

One movie drug is so valuable that people will cross the universe, and brave a harsh desert planet filled with giant sand worms to get it.

In David Lynch's Dune, Melange, or Spice, as it is commonly referred to, is a substance only found on the planet Arrakis. It is so sought after that whoever controls the spice of Arrakis, essentially controls the universe, and it's no surprise considering how awesome it is. Consuming Spice extends your lifespan, increases your vitality, and can give you telepathy. Not to mention it makes your eyes look like Paul Newman's times a million. The only downside? It's highly addictive, and withdrawal is fatal, so you die if you stop taking it.


1. "NUKE" FROM ROBOCOP 2

Robocop 2 is a movie born out of Nancy Reagan's war on drugs from the 1980s. In the film, the city of Detroit is crippled by a new designer drug called Nuke, and the resulting crime from it's use, which of course is a far cry from reality. Drug dealers and gangsters infest the city despite Robocop's noble crime fighting efforts.

Just like Nancy Reagan taught us about the real life drug problem in America, in Robocop 2, Detroit's youth suffers the most. Video game arcades have been turned into drug dens, young people are using drugs, and twelve-year-old boys can become high-ranking drug dealers in the crime wave created by nuke.

By showing Nuke as this evil, mystery chemical, that's luring kids to an early demise, director Irvin Kershner parodied Nancy Reagan's wildly overblown and misguided war on drugs.    

Nuke looks very menacing, but in an exaggerated, cartoonish way.  It's a colorful liquid injected into the bloodstream via single use vials, and has an upper effect, like that of cocaine or meth. The "Red Ramrod" is the most common type, but also has "White Noise," "Black Thunder," and "Blue Velvet" varieties.

Nuke is extremely addictive, so much so that even a robot can't resist. Cain, the Nuke kingpin, and addict, turned kick-ass cyborg, could have won if it weren't for his addiction. He could have become the ruler of the new Delta City's drug trade. He even could have beaten Robocop. He could have had it all, but he couldn't kick that nasty Nuke habit.

Fourth Quarter Films - Top 5 to Watch Until the End of the Year

Over a hundred films will be released from October to December this year. There will be new installments of tested franchises like The Hunger Games, Thor, and The Hobbit, but there will be plenty of big releases by talented filmmakers that shouldn't go overlooked, especially with the Oscars looming near. Here are five standout coming releases that are sure to top the critic's lists.

5. HER

Spike Jonze directs his screenplay about a lonely heartbroken man, played by Joaquin Phoenix, who falls in love with an artificially intelligent operating system, voiced by Scarlett Johansson.

Amy Adams co-stars as a flesh and blood love interest, but the emphasis is on the love story between a man, and what is essentially a robot, albeit one with a really sexy voice.

I wouldn't be surprised, given Jonze's track record, and the interesting subject matter, if this film received a writing nomination next Oscars.

4. THE WOLF OF WALL STREET

Marking the fifth pairing of director Martin Scorsese with star Leonardo DiCaprio (and probably not the last), The Wolf of Wall Street, is the story of the rise and fall of a real life Wall Street scumbag.

DiCaprio is surrounded by an ensemble of stellar actors including Matthew McConaughey, Kyle Chandler, and Jonah Hill.

The Academy loves Scorsese, so it's sure to receive some nominations. DiCaprio has a good shot at a nomination, and maybe finally a win after an 0-for-3 record.

3. THE COUNSELOR 
The first screenplay by Cormac McCarthy, author of No Country for Old Men, and The Road, is directed by Ridley Scott, with an all-star cast including Cameron Diaz, Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender, and Javier Bardem.

The story involves a lawyer, played by Fassbender, who gets in too deep with drug traffickers, which may be too risque for previous Oscar voters, but the influx of younger blood into the Academy may allow for a film like The Counselor to get in.

Ridley Scott has been hit or miss in his last several endeavors, but with this cast, and a writer like McCarthy, it is surely worth a watch.

2. DALLAS BUYER'S CLUB


Matthew McConaughey is having a banner year, delivering an amazing performance in Mud earlier this year, a supporting role in the aforementioned The Wolf of Wall Street, and a metamorphic role in Dallas Buyer's Club.

McConaughey is likely to get a best actor nomination for his role as Ron Woodruff, a womanizing party animal who contracts HIV. When he has no access to medicine, Ron travels to Mexico, bringing back medication to sell at low cost to ailing AIDS patients.

Jared Leto, who plays a transvestite prostitute afflicted with AIDS, is likely to get a best supporting actor nomination.



1. GRAVITY

Alfonso Cuaron proved with 2006's Children of Men, that he can make great thinking man's sci-fi. His follow up is Gravity, which is more space survival story than strait sci-fi, but has the feel of a great futuristic space story with the tension of a thriller like Open Water.

With George Clooney and Sandra Bullock being the only two non-voice over characters, the storytelling is certainly limited, yet the visual effects give the film a grand scope that will surely not go unnoticed by the Academy when it comes to visual effects and tech category nominations.

Coupledwith the caliber of filmmaker and lead actors, I wouldn't be surprised to see Gravity on the best picture ballot, especially with the category expansion a few years ago.