Far Out Man (1990) ** (out of 4) Tommy Chong wrote, directed and stars in this film as an aging hippie who goes on a road trip to try and get all of his family back together. If you're going into FAR OUT MAN expecting some sort of story then you're going to be disappointed because what we've got here is basically Chong getting some family and some famous friends together for a bunch of scenes involving him doing weird or dumb things. At the start of the film we see him fixing breakfast, dropping stuff on the floor and picking it back up to cook. This here, as well as the pot humor, is pretty much the type of laughs Chong goes for and for the most part it's a complete dud. With that said, as bad and as strange as this movie is, there's just something intriguing about it that makes it worth viewing if you're a fan of Chong. The film certainly has an "I don't care what you think" type of attitude for it. I mean, I doubt Chong was trying to win an Oscar for this thing and it's clear that he's just kicking back and having fun. The supporting cast includes a wide variety of famous faces including Martin Mull, Rae Dawn Chong, C. Thomas Howell, Reynaldo Rey, Judd Nelson, Michael Winslow and a cameo that I won't ruin. For the most part, with the exception of Martin, no one is taking their parts all that serious and it seems everyone is just helping Chong as a favor. FAR OUT MAN often fails when it comes to laughs but I think it still remains entertaining due in large part to Chong and his fun nature.

I had zero expectations going into this film but, OK maybe I thought it was really going to stink.It didn't.Sure, it doesn't have the subversive, cool, heady tripping of a Cheech & Chong flick and Tommy's casting his talentless wife in a lead role was way wrong, but there are still enough cool clips to keep your attention.One of the things that's sort of distracting about this film production is the excessive number of scenes that appear to be obviously overdubbed. Must have been a one take fix it later wonder film!

I listened to Cheech and Chong in their day; yeah, even though I wasn't a pothead I thought they were at least moderately funny. Maybe you needed to have been (or still be) a stoner to appreciate this film....but seriously, this movie is so screwed up that watching it stoned would merely be a waste of good weed.In a word, this sucked!! I wasn't expecting much in the first place, but even then I was disappointed. A couple of reviewers have described this as something like a Chong family home movie; that's giving this thing far more credit than it has coming. I couldn't get the plot, it made no sense whatsoever; and the cast (especially for Martin Mull) seemed to be merely going through the motions in order to just make it to the end of this fiasco. Frankly, this cost me about 90 minutes out of my life that I'm never going to get back, and I'm upset about it.You will notice that there are entries under the "memorable quotes", and even one item listed under "trivia", but nothing under "goofs". I think that's because this film was one big mistake from start to finish, and there was no way they could fit the whole movie into that one little section.  It gets one star only because I couldn't figure out how to give it any less.I did get *some* good out of the disc, though. I super-glued it in a stack with two other turkeys and it made for a passable clay pigeon.

I saw an ad for this in (popular stoner magazine) a few years back, thought "Hey, I'd like to get that!", and then promptly forgot about it. I rediscovered it while searching through Amazon.com for stoner comedies, and after seeing Tommy Chong's own review, decided I HAD to have it.Basically, I loved it. Yep, a little weak in places, but they weren't trying to make a cinematic masterpiece here. I'd put this in the same category as movies like "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo" or, in a more similar time period, "The Adventures of Ford Fairlane: Rock and Roll Detective" starring Andrew Dice Clay, one of my favorite cheeseball comedies from the late eighties/early nineties.Oh, and that's one other thing - I could've SWORN this movie was made (and released) recently - the copyright on the DVD says 2001, and all the reviews and info I read led me to believe it was a recent flick. Maybe just an oversight on my part, but it was actually made in 1989. Personally, that makes it even MORE enjoyable for me, as I love finding flicks that I missed in my youth, and get to see now for the first time. Then I get to show it to all of my friends, who are then similarly amazed that THEY hadn't heard of it, either. It's definitely a fun hobby :)[** A FEW VERY MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD, FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T WATCHED IT YET **] So anyway, like "Ford Fairlane", this movie is hit & miss at times, but when it hits, it hits great, with some real goofball humor that you'll be instantly quoting with your friends at the end of the movie. Also like "Ford Fairlane", this movie had a bunch of cool cameos, either playing random characters, or more typically, playing themselves. The brief Cheech spot was UTTERLY unexpected and was one of the biggest laughs of the movie. Dokken jamming out at Tommy's house was also an unexpected sight. C Thomas Howell's scene with Judd Nelson was simply AMAZING, with Howell being utterly floored that Judd Nelson had never heard of him. (Like Howell, I also thought Nelson kicked much butt in "From The Hip", another infrequently seen but highly enjoyable 80s comedy) Howell's line, "You've seen (random porn title) but never saw RED DAWN?!?" was a laugh-riot, and I totally agree. Did Judd Nelson live under a rock in the eighties, or what? RED DAWN = MUST SEE MOVIE! In conclusion, I really, REALLY liked this movie. Mad respect to Tommy Chong and family for putting this together. In the end, I guess Martin Mull's hypnotic suggestion ("You'll like this movie. Tell a friend.") made an actual impression on me. I liked this movie, and I'll be telling a LOT of friends. Check this out for sure - as long as you love goofy comedies, you'll dig it. It's far out, man. :)