Get Out of My Room (1985) ** (out of 4) Fair mockumentary from Cheech Marin has him directing and co-starring with Tommy Chong as they play themselves being followed by a "reporter" doing a story on their new album. We see interviews with them, interviews with fans and there's also four music videos. GET OUT OF MY ROOM really isn't a good or entertaining picture and I think for the most part it's mainly going to appeal to C&C fans who have to see everything the duo did. With that said, it's certainly far from a "bad" movie but at the same time the duo simply has so many better pictures to watch over this one. I think the highlight of the film is the video for "Born in East L.A.," which is obviously a take off on Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A.." I think fans of C&C as well as Springsteen will get a kick out of the video as it spoofs the city and Marin growing up there. The weakest aspect of the film are actually the fake interviews with Cheech and Chong as they simply aren't that funny and in fact they're not nearly as entertaining as some of the questions aimed at the fans.

Though not the best C&C film, certainly ranks up there with "Up In Smoke" and my personal favorite "Next Movie". The whole "Ian Rotten" bit in the first part is absolutely hysterical; the irony for "I'm Not Home Right Now" is great, and my favorite part, "Born In East L.A." is a great end to this hilarious mockumentary. The funniest bits come from in between the videos. The scene where the guy is trying to "expose" Cheech and Chong is absolutely hilarious. It's been a while since I watched this bit all the way through, but I recently acquired this hard to find classic and viewed a good portion of it. As I said, though it may not be the best of the Cheech and Chong series, it is certainly worth checking out.

Lets face it, Cheech and Chong were never that funny. Don't get me wrong, I liked 'Up In Smoke' a lot, and for me it's still the quintessential smoking film, but they pretty much plundered their albums for a lot of the material and I guess just kind of ran out of comedy mileage afterwards, since they didn't really produce anything else worth watching for the rest of their careers. Ok, maybe 'Things are Tough all Over' deserves another look, although those arabs got old real fast (and not in a Beetlejuice way, sadly), but 'Next Movie and Nice Dreams' are very mediocre and the abysmal non-movies 'Still Smokin' and 'The Corsican Brothers' (shudder) deserve only to be shown to convicted War Criminals.This was the last project they wrote together, and it looks like the parting of the ways came not a moment too soon. Essentially it's a documentary style film of C&C farting around on absolutely no budget (the studio execs were obviously getting a bit wary), interviews with some C&C fans (a worrying lack of basic cognition here), and some truly dreadful music. The gimmicky 'Born in East LA' (which became the basis for a FILM ITSELF, my Godfathers) is the best song to be found, but be prepared to spin through Cheech's ever infurating Ian Rotten character and the truly, truly dire 'I'm not home right now', a strong contendor for both the worst song of the 1980's (and thats up against some pretty stiff competition) and the worst Music Video OF ALL TIME. Flee, Flee, Run Away!!!!!!!!!!

Cheech and Chong's Get Out of My Room is the last thing the duo wrote, directed, produced and composed together (not acted though, they have teamed up in After Hours, Ferngully, Far Out Man, an episode of Nash Bridges and a very memorable and funny episode of South Park). And while this is the type of film that might let down those C & C fans that always toke up before the film (to say this critic does that would be incriminating, but just to save face I'll just say I know where you C & C fans are coming from), it is still funny. Sure not as funny as the triumphs Things Are Tough All Over, Nice Dreams, the uncompromising Up in Smoke and even the very worthy effort Next Movie, but it is still a trying and satirical approach to music videos that accomplishes it's task for all those about to watch. Really big flaw is that it is a set-up to be made fun (actually, Beavis and Butt-head did that already). Various stars make cameos in Spinal Tap style documentary between videos; Born In East L.A. is the definitive brainchild of Cheech. B