‘Cheech and Chong’s Last Movie’ follows the legendary stoners in winter

This career-spanning documentary takes Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong on one last road trip.

Throughout the 1970s and ‘80s, Richard “Cheech” Marin and Tommy Chong were popular culture’s most famous stoner duo. With an act that began with a stage show, continued with popular comedy albums, and eventually in a series of movies.

The two split up in the late ‘80s, with Marin doing quite a bit of acting and Chong pursuing the drug paraphernalia business, which landed him in jail at at least one point.

But after several years of one-off reunions on talk shows and podcasts in voice casts, and even at the Gathering of the Juggalos, the two are back together, with a retrospective documentary called Cheech and Chong’s Last Movie.

Directed by David L. Bushell, the SXSW debut film has a pretty simply conceit: The two men re-assemble, in a car, as they reminisce about their lives and careers, while also getting into occasional chicanery and bits (Since the staged bits make up about ten percent of the running time, the question will likely be asked whether this counts as a documentary at all.)

As they look back, we see all of the necessary archival footage included. Chong is 86, and Marin 78, so they have a lot to look back on, over the course of the film’s two hours.

Now I will admit that due to my longstanding aversion to stoner humor, I’ve never exactly been the biggest fan of Cheech and Chong’s movies. Their stage act, from what we see of it, was top-tier, but their movie series never really did it for me.

Like I said earlier this week about Monty Python, Cheech and Chong’s humor was very much a style of humor that’s of another era. I think you had to be there, and you had to be stoned to be there.

That said, I liked the documentary a lot, because these guys have fascinating life stories, and their chemistry and rapport are heartwarming. They sometimes bicker like an old married couple, which is apropos since their relationship has lasted longer than any either of them ever had with a wife or girlfriend.

The footage is well-curated, including lots of talk show appearances. It could have just been a clip show of their movies, sort of the way the recent Tom Green documentary treated The Tom Green Show, but that’s not what this is.

It’s always a fascinating dynamic when people who were part of the cutting-edge counterculture have reached old age, and that’s especially the case with Chong who, finally, in his 80s, can sell his cannabis seeds legally.

Cheech and Chong’s Last Movie is in theaters now.