MAC AND DEVIN GO TO HIGH SCHOOL -- DVD review by porfle

It's pretty much an established fact that being high can make a funny movie even funnier.  But can being high make a movie that isn't funny in the first place funny? 

That's what the makers of MAC AND DEVIN GO TO HIGH SCHOOL (2012) are counting on, so much so that the movie's introduction--delivered by a talking, badly CGI-animated joint named Slow Burn--urges impending viewers to either light up at once or stop the movie and don't watch it until they've procured some weed.  

It would take an awful lot of weed to even begin to enjoy this movie unless maybe you dropped some acid, too.  The sketchy plot consists of Snoop Dogg as the super-cool "Mac", who has been attending high school for fifteen years and is admired by all because he sells the best weed, being paired for a science project with the class brain Devin (Wiz Khalifa). 

This odd coupling turns out to be mutually beneficial, as Devin helps Mac increase his brain power (to impress their gorgeous substitute teacher) and Mac helps the straight-laced Devin forget about all that "self-improvement" nonsense and turn into a perpetually wasted stoner.  That's about it as far as the story goes.  Much of the film consists of Devin inhaling ungodly amounts of weed from Mac's elaborate bongs while lots of inept distorted-reality effects show us how really, really stoned he is.
 
The higher he gets, the more we're supposed to laugh, although unlike most of the better stoner comedies such as "Up in Smoke" (which you don't have to be stoned to enjoy), there are very few actual jokes or funny bits of business.  One scene in which Mac holds a competition among friends to see who has the best toking style features the wheelchair-bound character "Knees Down" (Andy Milonakis) sticking a joint up his girlfriend's ass and inhaling her weed-laced fart, which I guess is good for a chuckle if you're wasted enough. 

Despite Snoop claiming "we're the new Cheech and Chong" during the closing credits, both his acting and comedic talents are practically nonexistent.  Wiz Khalifa fares a bit better but his character goes from studious nerd to all-out weedhead so quickly that we hardly get any transitional gags like him showing up in class stoned or trying to function in straight society while helplessly baked. 

Mostly they just smoke tons of weed in Mac's apartment until it's time to touch briefly on the next plot point such as the big science project or graduation day.  A side trip into softcore porn breaks the monotony as Mac gets Devin laid at a massage parlor. The film also takes time out to promote the soundtrack album with a music video of Snoop and Wiz waxing poetic on the joys of toking up nonstop to a languid hip hop beat. 

Besides science class and graduation, other elements of high school comedy are given short shrift.  The school's name is funny--"N. Hale High School"--and the substitute science teacher who has Mac all a-flutter, Ms. Huck (Teairra Mari), is a knockout.  The obligatory bad guy, assistant principal Mr. Skinnfloot (Derek D), flits in and out of the movie with little comic effect--the script doesn't even bother to come up with an amusing comeuppance for him at the end.

Much of the time spent at the school consists of video-diary comments from the students about how cool Mac is.  A potentially funny rivalry between Devin and his competitor for class valedictorian, Mahatma Chang Greenberg (Paul Iacono), goes nowhere, as does Michael Epps' character of flaky teacher Mr. Armstrong.  Even the traditional "Where are they now?" tag fails to come up with anything worth busting a giggle over. 

The DVD from Anchor Bay is in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen with Dolby 5.1 sound.  No subtitles.  Extras include a smoke-hazed commentary with Snoop, Wiz, and director Dylan Brown, and a marathon closing credits crawl that contains a making-of featurette. 

As a low-budget comedy about nonconformist high schoolers, MAC AND DEVIN GO TO HIGH SCHOOL doesn't even come close to the wretched SCREWBALLS, which at least contained actual jokes and made a genuine effort to get laughs.  You can follow Slow Burn's advice if you want and get stoned out of your gourd before watching this, but unless it magically increases your tolerance for boredom you'd be better off just watching "Scooby-Doo" cartoons.


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