Cheech & Chong’s Hey Watch This – Blu-ray Disc Review
April 13, 2010 – 9:25 AM - Posted by: Justin SlussTags: Cheech & Chong, Cheech Marin, Christian Charles, Get it Legal, Light Up America, Marijuana, Shelby Chong, The Weinstein Company, Tommy Chong, Vivendi Entertainment
current awaiting a rating on IMDb
1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a 25gb disc
Dolby Digital 5.1 @448kbps
are like the roach in your ashtray…
– 
– 2010
– 85 minutes
– Vivendi Home Entertainment
– 
This uses 12.4GB for the movie out of 17.7GB total.
Street Date: April 20th, 2010
Overall Verdict – Highly Recommended for 4/20
Buy it for $21.49 @ Amazon.com
— Review written by: Justin Sluss —
The Movie Itself, “Cheech & Chong’s Hey Watch This” is a half documentary, half concert film of sorts directed by Christian Charles for the reunion comedy stand-up tour of the legendary pot (marijuana) friendly duo of “Cheech & Chong” (comprised of Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong). It has been over 25 years since the guys have had a “joint venture” of sorts (as the cover art mentions). After their years apart as a comedy duo as they had become famous for in the 1970′s Cheech and Tommy reunited as a stand-up / sketch comedy duo like they were famous for doing even in their films. This all happened on their 2008 – 2009 tour called “Cheech and Chong’s Light Up America” which actually has still ran in to this year now under the name “Get it Legal” and has a few shows still left on the schedule (with tickets possibly still available HERE). The film here though is from two different performances on that tour at the Majestic Theatre in San Antonio, Texas in March of 2009.
The guys are back doing all their old routines (as mentioned before) and I’ll go into a bit of detail about that below, but just as with the show, I’ll mention that it starts with an introduction by Tommy‘s wife Shelby Chong who does some hilarious stand-up of sorts. For those of you who don’t remember (first don’t blame marijuana use) Shelby has actually appeared in four of the “Cheech & Chong” films, those being “Cheech & Chong’s Next Movie” from 1980, “Nice Dreams” from 1981, “Things Are Tough All Over” from 1982 and even “Cheech & Chong’s The Corsican Brothers” from 1984 — as well as other films. After Shelby is finished with her introduction the fun begins and things “light up” with the guys’ most famous gag of “Pedro” picking up the hitchhiker. Next you get even more hilarious routines from the guys as well as side skits with some other characters like the two gay men and then the two stoner gang members who sit in the balcony during the show. This all works great together and feels much like their original films with all the same gags, just 25 years later it makes for some really good times that might even leave you laughing until you cry.
In closing, “Cheech & Chong’s Hey Watch This” truly has a close significant meaning to me personally since I had talked to Cheech & Tommy (separately at different events) a few years before this tour was put together. I remember Tommy Chong telling me in 2008 that they had the tour planned and it really excited me, especially when I got home and a month or so later they announced it publicly (via the Internet and media outlets). With that being said, I’ll have to openly admit this performance taped here and presented to folks in home video right on 4/20 (April 20th) is an absolute treat from start to finish and it made me laugh until I cried — as I suggested it might for you earlier. This also proved to me that the guys had actually listened to myself and other folks of all ages that had told them for the past few decades to get back together and have a reunion of sorts. Fans of all ages, be they in their twenties to in their fifties, seventies or whatever will enjoy this. As a fan of many years, I have to say I’m truly happy with this as well as proud of both Cheech & Tommy for giving it their best one last time for all of us in this tour that this performance is from.
Video Quality on this release is in full 1080p using the AVC MPEG-4 codec on a BD-25 (25 gigabyte single layer Blu-ray Disc) in the 1.78:1 aspect ratio. Wow, I had to make sure I wasn’t just high and/or my eyes were playing tricks on me when I first saw the opening few minutes of this in the glory of 1080p and what appears to have been a Hi-Def (digitally) shot film. This translates to a very impressive Hi-Def presentation on Blu-ray that comes with a lot of detail, especially in close-ups, a rich vibrant color palette that fits the comedy perfectly and obviously accurate fleshtones as well as a solid black level. There are no real flaws here that I could see aside from a bit of DNR that was likely applied on the Hi-Def camera as it was recorded and not in post-production, let alone in this transfer to Blu-ray. With that being said, again, I see no flaws here but it doesn’t necessarily jump off the screen at me like some of the best material out there yet it does impress me, enough to earn it a “4.5 Star Rating” for overall video quality. Plus, I’ll say I’m glad it’s in full 1080p @24Hz (24 frames per second) as opposed to being 60Hz or 1080i — 1080p/24Hz = right way to do something. Kudos to the folks who worked on filming this as I honestly think they are the reason this looks so good now on home video in Hi-Def as well as Vivendi who are distributing this for The Weinstein Company.
Audio Quality on this release is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 @448kbps. Sadly no lossless 5.1 mix is included but I’ll forgive them for that because the 5.1 mix here is actually pretty impressive. The amount of rear channel presence is pretty damn good and mostly comprised of the crowd at this show and their laughter, reactions, and so forth. The amount of LFE (bass) doesn’t really ever strike up to much until the performance of the famous song “Earache My Eye” in which we get treated to an excellent 5.1 presentation of the song and a loud roar of the crowd cheering for Cheech in his silly pink costume. Throughout this is going to keep you in that feeling of being in the crowd thanks to the rear channel presence made up mostly of audience laughter and reactions that I mentioned earlier. Dialogue, the most important thing here or lyrics during the vocal numbers, all are delivered distinctly and require no volume adjustments. Obviously, this is by no means “demo material” in the standard of audio, especially since it is in a lossy AC3 (Dolby Digital) container but it does manage to get the job done. This earns a decent “3.5 Star Rating” for overall audio quality. I’ll again say it is a shame this didn’t get a lossless mix but who knows maybe it has to do with this as I mentioned above (in video quality) possibly being shot in Hi-Def and maybe it was using the cameras themselves for audio and put it in a AC3 (DD 5.1) container which would have been pointless to basically “up convert” to a lossless mix. Anyone who owns a HD camcorder and knows tad bit about it would know that. With that being said though, I know I probably made a lot of old hippies heads hurt reading all that and even my own head hurt a bit and I’m not even that old nor a “hippy” per se. Regardless, it’s safe to say that buyers of this will be pleased with the audio presentation and not be a home theater snob like myself and critique it for being in Dolby Digital.
Bonus materials are presented in Hi-Def (HD) video quality with Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo @192kbps sound.
- Deleted & Extended Scenes are presented and are as follows:
- Extended Tommy Chong Stand-Up Routine (6:19 – HD)
- Shelby Chong’s Extended Introduction (18:57 – HD)
- Backstage with Red Hickey and Shelby Chong (3:09 – HD)
- Shelby Chong with Doug & Doggie (5:51 – HD)
Overall, the bonus materials are kind of like that roach that is hidden somewhere in your ashtray or between the cushions on your couch right after you run out of weed (this film ends) and now that is gonna really get you high (in this case happy with laughter) one day in the future or you can just go ahead and get it over with now and get the laughter. That I felt was the best way to explain the little bit of “shake” from some really good bud or tidbits that make up the bonus materials on this release. I’d like to add the stand-up bit that Tommy‘s wife Shelby Chong does here is great and she’s really a great addition to the show (act). Also the extended bit of Tommy‘s stand-up routine is hilarious and a MUST-SEE for fans. Sure there’s only 30 minutes or so total of bonus materials (four extended and deleted scenes) here but there’s enough to keep fans happy and that is important, plus they are all presented in Hi-Def which is very nice.
Blu-ray Disc packaging:
Screenshots:
NOTE: The full-sized 1920×1080 files are in a .PNG file format and uncompressed. Bare with the slow loading times, keep in mind these files are at least 1MB (1 megabyte) in size each.
