We haven't heard much about the stoner film, HOMEGROWN. Here are a couple of looks at the Billy Bob and Hank Azaria film is. Seems they are split on it. Of course ya have ta wonder if they parked Cheech and Chongs smoking van near the theater ventilation... Hmmmmmm sounds like a marketing ploy only Infra-Man could breathe through...
Hello Harry, Infra-Man here. Things have been pretty quiet on the monster- fighting front since my infamous battles with the wicked Princess Dragon-Mom. Sometimes to relax I like to fly down to the Seattle area and work a low paying job at a multiplex. You know, just in case.
Of course, the whole theater projectionist front usually only allows me to see films the night before everyone else, but since the movie HOMEGROWN is being test marketed in Seattle I've already seen it, and a scientist friend of mine encouraged me to send you a review.
The movie stars Billy Bob Thornton, Hank Azaria and Ryan Phillipe as workers on a marijuana plantation. When their boss is suddenly killed and the future of the plantation is in doubt, the three try to recoup their invested time by grabbing a few quick loads of the plant and selling it themselves. Of course, not everything goes as planned, the three can't entirely trust each other and various other parties fight over the marijuana and the money it is worth, including the cops and "rippers" who may or may not be in on the murder of the boss.
Basically, it's a crime movie where instead of fighting over a suitcase full of cash, a satchel of diamonds or one of those deadly classified CD-ROMs that are all the rage these days, they're fighting over bails of marijuana. Sure, there have been movies and whole TV series' about fighting over, say, bags of cocaine. But this is an interesting twist here because they have to actually cut down the plants, drive them home in the back of a truck and then sit down at a table and process them by hand. It's a working man's suitcase of cash, I guess.
I can't remember if I've ever seen a movie with marijuana plantation workers, but I know I've never seen one with them as protagonists. I enjoyed this because it treated them as normal people. Just guys with a job. They're not the faceless villains you see running from the cops on reality shows, and they're also not revolutionaries standing up for the right to smoke away brain cells. It never turns into a morality tale, never stands up for or against marijuana, because that would be irrelevant and trite. There are other times when the film goes for the obvious - making the young Phillipe fall for Azaria's lover, for example. But I'm glad that the preachiness that is often considered necessary at least in the ending of a movie like this is completely absent.
Billy Bob Thornton is charismatic as usual and he makes the movie worth watching, especially when he's running around the woods in a bathrobe during a shootout. However I thought Ryan Phillipe, who I liked in I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, was weak at times, overplaying the dumb-pothead-kid routine. The stunt casting of Ted Danson as a vicious drug lord doesn't pay off in the Tarantino type of way it was probably intended to (isn't it weird that it's starting to become a cliche to take an actor that is known for being in crap and cast them as some sort of badass criminal?), but Jon Bon Jovi isn't bad as a more mellow potential buyer. They are also trying to hype up John Lithgow, who has a supporting role in the film as the trio's boss, and Jamie Lee Curtis, who has a tiny cameo. Not seen in the advertisements is Kelly Lynch, who plays Azaria's aforementioned lover and collaborator in the marijuana trade.
The direction of the film is mediocre, with some really cheesily integrated music and only-okay photography. I would recommend it for low-expectation matinee or cable viewing, but I doubt it will ever find its audience, especially if they choose to advertise it country-wide in the same misleading manner they have here. The ads explicitly call it a comedy, which it is not, and play up Azaria and Phillipe smoking pot, which is a miniscule part of the film. The trailer shows the trio sitting in a hot tub with Bon Jovi doing stoner laughs - they're trying to make it look like another HALF BAKED style "isn't it funny, they smoke pot and then they laugh" type of movie. In the movie, this scene is actually kind of amusing because they're playing up the stoned routine to convince Bon Jovi of the quality of their product.
I saw HOMEGROWN at an employee screening with a couple other super heroes masquerading as projectionists, and I liked it better than the other two. Therefore I'm not sure what the general audience reaction has been, though it has acquired a medium-sized attendance over the weekend (larger than I expected). Many of the filmgoers are teenagers and The Dude-types with a peculiar odor to their clothing, though I've also noticed parents bringing their young kids to see it. This is okay because pot smoking really is not a prerequisite to seeing the movie. Remember, Infra-Man says NO to drugs and YES to kicking monster ass!
And here is another view from Harold Hellman, who liked it...
Haven't seen anything on your site, or anyone else's for that matter, about "Homegrown," the marijuana-themed movie starring Billy Bob Thornton, Hank Azaria, Kelly Lynch, etc, directed by Steve Gyllenhall (sp?). Tri-Star, the distributing studio, put the movie out in Seattle several weeks in advance of the rest of the country, evidently because they weren't sure how a dope flick would "play in Peoria," so to speak, and they wanted to gauge audience reaction before going forward with a nationwide release.
Well, I'm here in Seattle, and I've seen it, so I'm zipping off a message about it. It's not exactly a test screening, since it's been open in regular theatres here, but as nobody else in the country has had the opportunity to catch it, I figure this advance word might be of interest.
First of all, the ad campaign they ran locally made the movie look like a pothead comedy, like the recent "Half Baked." THIS COULD NOT POSSIBLY BE MORE MISLEADING. The movie is actually a semi-action suspense thriller. There's some humor, sure, but it's not of the "people getting stoned and having surreal adventures" variety. In fact, the story would be more accurately described as of the "average Joes getting mixed up in crime by finding something that belongs to powerful criminals" genre, with the difference that the maguffin (the sought-after object that always drives the plot in these movies) happens to be a large stash of wonder weed.
That said, it's actually a decent movie. It's a little fractured and unfocused, with an occasionally overly busy storyline, but the tone is very consistent. It absolutely knows it's a crime thriller set against a cannibis backdrop, and never varies from it. In other words, it's not as if Cheech & Chong tried to make a "straight" movie; it's just a thriller that happens to be about pot.
The cast is great. Thornton, Azaria, and some guy who was in "I Know What You Did..." and "White Squall" make up the trio of low-level drug workers who stumble into a bigger opportunity. Although they're definitely "types" (no-nonsense redneck, aging ex-hippie, easily distractable slacker dude), the relationships are clear and interesting, and the chemistry between the actors is strong. The movie indulges in some offbeat "stunt casting," in which Judge Reinhold, Jamie Lee Curtis, and some others show up for strange little cameos. Sometimes they work; sometimes they don't.
The story is complex and mostly unpredictable, but what's really interesting is the presentation of the realities of marijuana production as a business. Like I said, it's not a pothead comedy; you don't have to be a regular toker to enjoy the movie. In fact, you SHOULDN'T be. Again, I must stress that the ad campaign goes 180 degrees away from this fact, and I'm sure there have been a lot of freaked-out stoners in the audience who thought they were going to get another "Bill & Ted" type movie, and who were unable to follow a convoluted plot with betrayal, murder, and character-based tension.
Anyway, that's my contribution. I have no idea when (or if) Tri-Star will be expanding "Homegrown" outside Seattle, but if they do, they had damn well better come up with an accurate marketing campaign, or risk losing the suspense-thriller audience who SHOULD be the target for the movie.
I never thought I'd be saying this, but the folks in Tri-Star's marketing department clearly don't smoke enough pot. If they think this movie will appeal to and be enjoyed by stoners, they're idiots.
