Evil Bong (2006)

Director: Charles Band

Writer: Domonic Muir

Composers: District 78, Ker'in Hayden

Starring: David Weidoff, John Patrick Jordan, Mitch Eakins, Brian Lloyd, Robin Sydney, Kristyn Green, Tommy Chong, Michelle Mais, Jacob Witkin, Tim Thomerson, Bill Moseley

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Dude, it's one SCARY trip!

Plot: Straight-laced nerd Alistair moves into a college dorm with hardcore marijuana users Brett, Larnell, and Bachman. Larnell orders an old giant bong that proves to have strange magical powers. When smoked said bong sends a person to a bizarre drugged-out alternate realm from which there is no easy escape.

My rating: 5.5/10

Will I watch it again? No.

One thing that surprised me, considering this is from the low budget, direct-to-video company Full Moon (whose stuff from the 80s and 90s I usually dig), is the opening credits song.  It's pretty catchy and fun.  Then the story starts proper and it goes into familiar setting of a nerd moving in with a stoner and a jock, who's also a stoner.  When one of the guy's foul mouthed grandfather shows up and brings the funny it perks up a bit. The parts in between are OK.  It's not horrible nor is it all that good.  The scenes in the strip club provide the nudity you're gonna want.  Besides grandpa, the best reason to watch it is for Tommy Chong who shows up near the end for a small but important role.  He's great and so is a cameo by Full Moon regular Tim Thomerson as Jack Deth.  I love that guy.  Horror fans will notice Bill Moseley at the strip club.  You know the special effects budget is between $35 and $40 when the talking bong's mouth doesn't move when she speaks.  Instead she communicates telepathically.  How convenient.  Long gone, I guess, are the days when the studio that puppets built would take the time and money to throw in some stop motion animation.  But I guess if you're going to watch a movie called EVIL BONG then that's not going to matter.  The DVD has an anamorphic widescreen print with a two extras.  The first is a 19-minute short called Evil Bong: Behind the Scenes...I wonder what that's about.  The other extra, Roadshow 2005 featurette, is a half hour compilation of live stage storytelling shows with Charles Band (ala what Kevin Smith is now doing with audiences), clips from Full Moon's catalog, and clips from The Tonight Show with Leno when Charles Band's son, Alex, was there with his band.  William Shatner shows up for an anecdote with Charles and Charles talks a lot about the film making process and there are some other goodies that fans of this studio are going to love.  It's a lot of fun and a lot more entertaining than the film.  I'd recommend getting the disc just for that.  Seriously.