Inside Pulse DVD Review – Puff, Puff, Pass

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DVD available at Amazon.com

Director:

Mekhi Phifer

Cast:

Danny Masterson……….Larry
Ronnie Warner……….Rico
Mekhi Phifer……….Big Daddy
Ashley Scott……….Elise
Terry Crews……….Cold Crush
Darrell Hammond……….Jonathan
Constance Marie……….Montana
John C. McGinley………..John Dupree

Nanofilms and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment present Puff, Puff, Pass. Written by Ronnie Warner and Kent George. Running time: 95 minutes. Rated R (for language, drug use and sexual content.) Available on DVD: May 9 2006.

The movie:

Stoner comedies, if made correctly, will benefit two entities. The first would be the guy around the block who offers illegal substances; the other is the snack food industry (i.e., Little Debbie cakes, Twinkies, and potato chips). Two entrepreneurs, aside from the movie studio, may profit from these comedies, but the viewer may have little to gain, especially if he doesn’t partake in doing drugs or is on a diet. Nevertheless, Puff, Puff, Pass is a comedy aimed towards puffers and waistoids.

Danny Masterson and Ronnie Warner are two stoners (Larry and Rico) who lack the necessary funds to pay rent. Judging by their dungy apartment, whose floor is littered with pizza boxes, cigarette burns, and disgusting odors, it’s unlikely they are going to find the rent money jammed in between the couch cushions. Letting the puff of a Mary Jane cigarette set them at ease, they pass the time playing Pong and forget about the landlord in their apartment.

Money is everywhere. Those who strive to attain it will. Those who decide to play Pong all day probably won’t. All Larry and Rico want is to be successful. Thankfully, an infomercial with spokesman John Dupree (a bleached blonde John C. McGinley) is the answer. The product he’s dealing is a start-up business involving classified ads. Not divulging too much, let’s just say the process is “complicated,” a word Larry uses numerous times when explaining his and Rico’s newfound endeavor to others.

Without rent money Larry and Rico are in a quandary. The landlord gives the tenants the boot, leaving the stoner buds without a TV. No TV equates to no basic cable. No basic cable means no way to watch the 24-hour Shawshank Redemption marathon on TNT. What a shame, since it is their favorite movie.

Larry and Rico know what needs to be done: Find a place with basic cable. Sounds easy, right? Well, those who have half a brain it may be. But the brain of a pothead is another matter altogether. A simple task develops into an arduous quest to find “The Shank“. Along the way they spend some volunteer nights in rehab since the rooms come with TV – only 8 channels, no TNT; and encounter Larry’s brother Jonathan (SNL‘s Darrell Hammond), a manager at a chicken shack restaurant, a businessman named Big Daddy, and an aspiring 6-foot-something rapper called Cold Crush (Terry Crews).

What sounds like an enjoyable madcap comedy with strange characters and even stranger situations, sadly turns out to be the same gags repeated every other scene. The only amusing bits are when Larry and Rico ruminate over The Shawshank Redemption. Especially as the two argue whether or not Andy Dufrense was molested inside the prison walls. Larry says no, yet he’s only seen it on basic cable. Rico, the barer of bad news, tells his friend that it is a major plot point in the movie. How do you miss something like that?

One thing leads to another and the two friends find themselves working for Big Daddy, as he wants them to sell his collection of Sacajawea nickels. If only they knew how to spell Sacajawea, then maybe they wouldn’t make one blunder after another. On the totem pole of pothead stupidity Larry and Rico are notched in between Harold and Kumar (the smartest) and Cheech and Chong (the, er, doobiest).

This is the part of the review where I should observe that this is Mekhi Phifer’s (a.k.a. Big Daddy) first time in the director’s chair. So maybe it isn’t the sharpest looking picture. Jump cuts and inconsistencies. It’s a work in progress. The same could be said for Ronnie Warner doing double duty as Rico and as the screenwriter. How he ever thought of to make The Shawshank Redemption be the ultimate movie to light up to, I’ll never know. Rappers have Scarface, stoners have “The Shank“.

Puff, Puff, Pass may not hold a candle to stoner comedies of yesteryear – Dazed and Confused, particularly – but those who enjoy movies without the necessity of character development or a rational narrative, this is something worth looking into. But before you light up, be sure you have plenty of finger foods and high fructose beverages that are sure to keep you wired all night long.

Score: 2/10

The DVD:

THE VIDEO
(Presented in 1.85:1 Anamorphic widescreen)

Mekhi Phifer’s directorial debut gets a decent transfer on DVD. Even though the video looks clean, there are white spots and other blemishes present. There are times when the set lighting could have used some work, appearing a little too bright, but this is mostly likely due to budget constraints.

Score: 6/10

THE AUDIO
(English 5.1 Dolby Digital; French 2.0)

Boasting a 5.1 sound track is nothing to sneeze at. Puff, Puff, Pass doesn’t offer much in the way of songs you can smoke to. In its place is an original score by Facilitator Music. A synthesizer and other reverb instruments created the sound for the movie, but could have easily been used in a porno. Perhaps Facilitator Music just swiped some sheet music that was supposed to be for a porn video. That would explain a lot. Okay, not really. But waistoids were sure to speculate their own conclusions.

Score: 6/10

SPECIAL FEATURES: Not even a complementary dime bag…

Well, not much is to be expected from a direct to DVD release. The only extras are a number of trailers advertising video releases by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment: The Tenants, Hostel, London, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, When a Stranger Calls (2006), Underworld Evolution, Ultraviolet, The Pink Panther (2006), Freedomland, Mirrormask, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Score: 1/10

InsidePulse’s Ratings for Puff, Puff, Pass
CATAGORY
RATING
(OUT OF 10)
THE MOVIE

2
THE VIDEO

6
THE AUDIO

6
THE EXTRAS

1
REPLAY VALUE

1
OVERALL
1.5
(NOT AN AVERAGE)

Travis Leamons is one of the Inside Pulse Originals and currently holds the position of Managing Editor at Inside Pulse Movies. He's told that the position is his until he's dead or if "The Boss" can find somebody better. I expect the best and I give the best. Here's the beer. Here's the entertainment. Now have fun. That's an order!