Dude, Where's My Car?

We've all heard of the 'stoner comedy'. Much like the 'buddy cop' movies I discussed a few weeks ago, they are in no short supply. Harold & Kumar, Clerks, Ali G Indahouse, and pretty much every film in Seth Rogen's repertoire. So, as you may have guessed, the subject of today's review is a stoner movie, one of the most famous as a matter of fact: Dude, Where's My Car?

Released in 2000 (can you believe it), and directed by Danny Leiner (The Great New Wonderful), the movie features Ashton Kutcher (when his films didn't make you want to scalp yourself) and Seann William Scott alongside Jennifer Garner, Marla Sokoloff, and a host of others. Poorly received upon release, it certainly isn't a great movie, but it's nowhere near terrible. It's quirky, inventive, and actually pretty damn funny at times, so let's dive right in.

The movie opens with our 2 pot-headed protagonists, Jesse (Kutcher) and Chester (Scott), finding themselves in that most cliched of waster scenarios: Waking up after a big night, and having no recollection of what took place during it.

After eating some of the pudding they found in their kitchen, a lifetimes supply in fact, they head out to visit their twin girlfriends Wanda & Wilma (Garner and Sokoloff respectively), as it happens to be their anniversary. Unfortunately, upon leaving their house, they almost immediately ask the question that drives the entire movie: Dude, where's my car?

                                                     Kutcher's career went that way!

From then on, our hapless heroes attempt to piece together the events that took place the night before. During this quest, they get into several unsavoury confrontations with a transsexual stripper, get kidnapped by a geeky-space cult, encounter hot alien women in black jumpsuits, are followed by a pair of Nordic spacemen, are taken prisoner by French Ostrich breeders, and have a most annoying incident at a Chinese drive-through. I'll admit, I've had some pretty weird days, but I think this one dwarfs the lot.

So, as you may have gathered, one of the things the movie has going for it is it's inventiveness, or should I say it's outlandishness. I think you would have to be blitzed out of your skull to think up some of the scenarios this film throws at us. Much like Beavis & Butthead: Do America, the main characters are faced with many challenges, and yet manage to deal with all of them while maintaining their characteristically oblivious attitude.

As you may have surmised from the first few paragraphs of this review, I'm not an Ashton Kutcher fan, especially his recent work. The multi-razzie winner has been turning out some utter crap as of late, but here, he's very likable, as is Scotts' character. If they had simply been crass and obnoxious like in so many contemporary stoner films, it would have completely killed it. But as is, we have a flick that is profoundly silly, but at the same time is funny, witty, and actually pretty endearing. As one of the most iconic stoner comedies of all time, it gives you exactly what you are looking for.