I love the team of Cheech and Chong, but god, is Nice Dreams just a plain bad oregano misfire. I'm not sure why I even give it a 3. Uselessly discordant, it doesn't even successfully showcase their skit talents but for a few scenes in the movie. The plot is really not worth covering, and many other reviews have devoted time to attempt to explain it. Suffice it to say, this film was either made solely because of an unwanted production obligation, and thus made as poorly as could be, or (I doubt) made in such a coke induced stupor as to be retarded. Not stoned, but retarded. It begins, then it introduces absurd plot points (like the boys living in a PALACE on the beaches of California), Stacey Keach in a pointless police role who slowly morphs into a lizard due to smoking the unexplained tainted weed they are peddling in their frightening nightmare of an ice cream truck. Even these early "hey man, it's the cops, RUN!" moments are then just tossed out the broken window of this madness. Women run about, Pee Wee makes the scene, twice (how did he get out to make the first scene of his, you must watch to find out why I even ask), and blah blah blah. It sucks. It's not funny, even when stoned to the gills.Unless you're REALLY stoned to the point of becoming a lizard, do not seek this C+C opus out at all. Rather, be high, listen to Big Bambu on your 8 track and laugh your ass off, and say that you're not here.

These guys made a terrific movie in their first try. It was an accident, but what happened was a combination of things. There was cool self-reference and the perversion of the buddy road movie. It has a looseness to it that was new to "mainstream" movies in those days. Yes, part of the charm was that this was a mainstream movie and it treated dope smoking as a trivial amusement. It was in a way, the "Thin Man" of dope.Afterwards, these guys made nothing but drek, sort of a demonstration of the dullness that dope brings. These things aren't even watched any more by the doper crowd because market forces have moved to supply them with hipper, more supportive fare. So if you are considering watching this for almost any reason, you'll find better elsewhere.That is, except for the appearance of Timothy Leary. In those days, there really were distinct drug cultures. Pot was originally a Black Jazz thing, appropriated by kids. LSD was for the spiritually ambitious. Coke for bored celebrities, Heroin for the ghetto. Speed for the fringe biker crowd. Sects formed around these in the 70s and they became icons for different "life style" choices, though that silly term would be invented later.This movie was the first C&C that threw all drugs in the same barrel. Pot, coke and acid, all the same.That last makes its appearance here, ushered in by Leary. I'm convinced that the world would be a radically different place today if he weren't so inadequately suited for the role he adopted: prophet of synthesized enlightenment. By 1980, he was a joke and already exploiting his celebrity status to earn a living.Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

Cheech and Chong's first movie, Up in Smoke (1978), was the most successful and it set the scene for the five other films which were to follow. Nice Dreams (1981) is movie number three. Nice Dreams is a very good film for laid-back old hippies like me who enjoy romanticising the 70s. Gone are the flower-power days of the 60s and life seems to have degenerated into sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll, and this movie has its fair share of each.My favourite scene is at the Chinese restaurant where Chong is mistaken for Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. And then there is a welcome cameo appearance from the enigmatic LSD guru Dr Timothy Leary. One of my favourite supporting roles is the police sergeant who has the tongue of a lizard and believes "the only way to catch a doper is for you yourself to become a smoker." The quirky soundtrack and slapstick comedy helps to keep the movie moving along nicely...Even though Cheech and Chong sold millions of records in the 70s and had a major success with Up in Smoke, I would not call Nice Dreams a mainstream movie. I would suggest it is a movie with a cult following although I've never seen it on any "cult film" lists.If you like this movie you may also like "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and "Withnail and I".

"Nice Dreams" has Cheech and Chong cruising around selling their unique 'ice cream'. Realizing they have made a ton of money, they go about trying to figure out what to do with their newfound wealth.Along the way they encounter a crazy music agent who thinks Chong is Jerry Garcia, a coked-out Pee Wee Herman, Cheech's ex-love interest Donna and her old man Animal, who just happens to hate Mexicans.On par "Cheech And Chongs Next Movie", "Nice Dreams" has some genuinely funny moments, such as Cheech getting stuck on top of the glass elevator naked, and when Cheech is locked away in the nut house. (Timothy Leary has a cameo as a drug-dispensing doctor.) Wasted in this film was Stacy Keach as Sgt. Stedanko. He was awesome in "Up In Smoke", but has little to do here but smoke pot and turn into a lizard. Yes you read that right.In my opinion, after "Up In Smoke", C&C never managed to hit the same level of success. Overall a fun movie, but not up to the level of previous efforts.Rating: 7 out of 10