Title: Half Baked (1998)
Director: Tamra Davis
Duration: 1h 22m
Cast: Dave Chappelle, Guillermo Diaz, Rachel True, Harland Williams
The African-American community’s obsession with marijuana is a topic that has been covered at length in Hollywood and Half Baked is one of those movies that simply put the flavor in it. We have Thurgood (Dave Chappelle), a young black man with a job with shitty pay but who’s happy nonetheless because of one of the wonders of the universe, the herbs that we refer to as marijuana, an illegal substance in most of the United States at the time of the release of this movie.
Thurgood’s only joy in life came from being high with his childhood friends. For sure, he knows everything there is to know about weed; where to score, who has the best weed in town, all kinds of smokers. That’s why he is the narrator of the movie telling the story of how they first got hooked on weed and now.
The situation came when one of them accidentally killed a police horse and was thrown in jail for killing a cop, with bail set at more than they could afford to pay. Things get worse when Kenny, the guy in jail for killing the horse, is getting threats of harassment in jail from big guys he couldn’t possibly handle on his own. The only solution was to get him out of there real quick. But since they had no way of making such money, they had to devise a plan, and the best they could come up with involved stealing weed and selling it out. The plan was good on paper but the guys were going to find themselves encountering problems they could never have foreseen. And of course, Thurgood made it clear they were not drug dealers but simply fundraisers.
The whole operation was controlled by Thurgood who was the sole voice of reason but it soon started to conflict with his personal life because the girl he was interested in, Mary Jane, had a drug dealer father and absolutely detested anything that had to do with drugs. With Thurgood now the head of a major drug operation, there’s bound to be problems with Mary Jane.
Meanwhile, there’s a rival kingpin who seems to have a problem with Thurgood’s operation and would stop at nothing to stop him. Thurgood will then have to connive with law enforcement if he was to save his ass and get his friend out of jail.
Overall, a very interesting comedy that at some moments almost seems like a satirical parody, Half Baked, is no doubt one of Dave Chappelle’s best performances and it’s almost like the movie would be nothing without him. He does have something in common with actors who have played similar leading roles in similar movies like Snoop Dogg, Redman, and Ice Cube, and that is the fact that he’s unapologetically black. Real.
Rotten Tomatoes: 28%
IMDb: 6.6/10
Letterboxd: 3.1/5
Where to Watch Half Baked (1998)?
You can be able to stream Half Baked (1998) by renting or purchasing on
- Apple TV
- Google Play Movies
- Vudu
- Netflix
