Best stoner movies: 20 high-rated favs (original) (raw)

Stoner movies can be hard to define, but you just kind of know one when you see one. For example: The mere presence of marijuana, does not a stoner film make. But a montage of a character dating, marrying, and then arguing with a giant bag of weed _does_…

Sure, a comedy like Cheech and Chong's Up In Smoke is easy to finger, but there are also those unintentionally hilarious movies, like Reefer Madness, or films that just strike the right notes, like Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny. It's a vague genre with a highly storied history. This list of the absolute best stoner films stretches from 1936 to the present and brings in films where getting stoned is integral to the plot (Half Baked), as well as ones where it's more tertiary but still fits the bill (like The Big Lebowski...hey, if the Dude abides, so do we).

However you define a stoner film, you're sure to find some high-ly entertaining favorites in the list below.

20. Our Idiot Brother (2011)

Nicole Rivelli

Pot smoking may not be wholly accountable for Ned's (Paul Rudd) happy-go-lucky demeanor in Our Idiot Brother, but the fact that he sells weed to a uniformed cop kind of says it all.

18. Dude, Where's My Car? (2000)

Tracy Bennett

Nine years before The Hangover, two stoners (Ashton Kutcher and Seann William Scott) wake up one morning with no recollection of the previous night. Or, obviously, where they parked their car. What follows — including dueling alien factions and a cannabis-craving pooch — delivers a decent contact high after just one viewing of Dude, Where's My Car?

16. Clerks (1994)

Miramax

Shameless reprobate Jay (Jason Mewes) and sage Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) eventually became immortalized in comic book form as Blunt Man and Chronic, but in Smith's first Jersey opus, Clerks, they're simple dealers harassing put-upon Dante (Brian O'Halloran) on what was supposed to be his day off.

15. The Wackness (2008)

JoJo Whilden/SPC

This coming-of-age film set in 1994 Manhattan tells the story of a lovesick teen (Josh Peck) who deals weed from his water-ice cart and trades reefer to his psychiatrist (Ben Kingsley) in return for counseling. Plus, Method Man and Mary-Kate Olsen costar, lending it their stamp of approval.

14. Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)

Everett Collection

This dumb-buddy vision quest enabled the existence of Dude, Where's My Car? and was made by the director who brought us Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (RIP Danny Leiner). Most excellent, indeed. The duo would ride again with the 1991 sequel Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey and 2020's Bill & Ted Face the Music.

13. Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny (2006)

Peter Iovino

Jack Black and Kyle Glass, two schlumpy wannabe musicians in search of a ''supra-natural'' guitar pick, dance with the devil (Dave Grohl) and ultimately use Satan's horn as a bong. Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny is indeed an epic stoner journey.

12. Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)

Everett Collection

Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn) is not quite the greatest stoner in the history of film (we'll be getting to The Big Lebowski's Dude in a little while), but his surfer-dude personality from Fast Times at Ridgemont High became a bitchin' archetype for kindred adventurers like Bill & Ted to follow.

11. Reefer Madness (1936)

Everett Collection

Ostensibly, a terrifying cautionary tale about the dangers of marijuana-induced psychosis (with a poster that's become a dorm-room classic) — really more like Our Town on drugs.

10. Super Troopers (2002)

Fox Searchlight

A highway patrol pot caper involving a bear costume, syrup-drinking contests, and an Afghan cartoon monkey carrying coded Taliban messages. Come to think of it, Super Troopers should probably be higher on the list.

9. Knocked Up (2007)

Suzanne Hanover

Seth Rogen's slacker father-to-be in Knocked Up never had a choice. His name is Ben Stone, and his juvenile housemates and even his dad (Harold Ramis) are chronic fans of chronic.

8. Up In Smoke (1978)

The Kobal Collection/WireImage.com

Cheech and Chong (Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong) bring their doobie-brothers act to the big screen, at one point illegally crossing the border in a van made entirely of reefer. Happens all the time.

7. Half Baked (1998)

Everett Collection

A rainbow coalition of celebrity cameos populates this whacked-out film that's sort of about Dave Chappelle dealing stolen medical marijuana and sort of about Jon Stewart saying, ''...on WEED!''

6. Friday (1995)

Everett Collection

On Friday, with nothing to do, Ice Cube and Chris Tucker get high, sit on a porch, and watch the world go by. Oh, and they learn some important life lessons.

5. Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004)

Sophie Giraud

A pair of pals (John Cho and Kal Penn) quest for tiny burger bundles of joy. Their totally baked journey includes a stop at Princeton (for more weed), a ride on an escaped cheetah, and an encounter with Neil Patrick Harris — who's high on ecstasy and looking to get laid. Stoner movies don't get much more creative than that.

4. How High (2001)

Sam Urdank

Method Man and Redman smoke weed planted in the ashes of a dead friend, and his ghost gets them into Harvard. Happens all the time, or, at least, it happens in How High.

3. Pineapple Express (2008)

Darren Michaels

In what might be the only stoner action movie, two unlikely doobie brothers, process server Dale (Seth Rogen) and groovy dealer Saul (James Franco), bond over the ''dopest dope I ever smoked,'' the potent Pineapple Express, while being chased by corrupt cops.

2. The Big Lebowski (1998)

Merrick Morton

The Dude (Jeff Bridges) is the greatest stoner in the history of film because the Dude abides, dude.

1. Dazed and Confused (1993)

Dazed and Confused: Gramercy Pictures/Everett Collection

Richard Linklater's slacker opus Dazed and Confused glides along on a buzz stoked by Aerosmith and carefree youth. You don't need to have a joint to hang with these Texas teens celebrating their last day of school...but as Wooderson (Matthew McConaughey) would say, ''it'd be a lot cooler if you did.''